


Bright Moon Camp

by moreteapls



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Childhood Friends, Childhood Trauma, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Mild Sexual Content, POV Adora (She-Ra), Scorpia is protective of Catra, Slow Burn, They are camp counselors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 54,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22673674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moreteapls/pseuds/moreteapls
Summary: "A new summer season approached and Adora couldn’t be happier. Last summer had been the first one working at Bright Moon Camp alongside Bow and Glimmer and it had been amazing. Spending time at a beautiful place with her best friends while having fun with some kids and also getting paid for it? Was like paradise."Adora, however, was not prepared to find her childhood best friend, Catra, would be a counselor as well. Now they both have no choice but to come in terms with their feelings, after the abrupt and tumultuous ending of their relationship four years ago.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Minor or Background Relationship(s), One sided Scorpia/Catra - Relationship
Comments: 84
Kudos: 319





	1. The reunion

A new summer season approached and Adora couldn’t be happier. Last summer had been the first one working at Bright Moon Camp alongside Bow and Glimmer and it had been amazing. Spending time at a beautiful place with her best friends while having fun with some kids and also getting paid for it? Was like paradise. The camp was huge, Adora couldn’t even calculate how many miles it had. All kinds of colorful trees and bushes covered the area, and there was also a magnificient lake Adora loved to swim in when the time allowed it. 

There were a total of eight counselors, divided in pairs to take care of the four camper groups divided by ages. The “little ones”, as they called them, from six to eight and from nine to eleven, and the “big ones” from twelve to fourteen and from fifteen to sixteen. The little ones stayed for one week at camp while the big ones stayed for two weeks, and the counselors followed a rotary system between taking care of the little ones and the big ones. Last year Adora’s companion had been Glimmer troughout the whole summer. They had met at college during freshman year and had been practically inseparable since then. Glimmer had been, in fact, the one that had offered Bow and her the job at the camp, as her parents owned the place. 

They had grown closer with two of the other counselors as well, Mermista and Sea Hawke, who were returning as counselors this summer once again, for the trio’s delight. None of them were completly sure if Mermista and Sea Hawke were dating, or if they were just very close friends, and at this point they felt it didn’t make much of a difference. They had requested to be paired together as last summer, while Glimmer and Bow would be partners this time. It was only fair, as last year Bow had been paired with a careless and selfish guy that never helped him with the activities or paid much attention to anyone but his cellphone. Thankfully, due to Bow’s request, he was not hired this season, but they poor boy had had such a bad experience that he only wanted to be safe with his best friend this time. That meant Adora’s partner would be one of the new counselors. Glimmer told her they had recruited three new girls this year, to cover the position of the three counselors who were not coming back this summer, including that insufferable boy. 

The pairs shared a small and simple wooden cabin with nothing more than a litter and a bathroom. Angella, Glimmer’s mother, had told Adora that in the past the counselors used to sleep all together, but they always ended up fighting and never had the privacy or space to desing the activities for their specific groups, so they had decided to build these small cabins for the pairs to be more comfortable. The campers slept in two other cabins next to the counselors’ one, one for the boys and one for the girls. 

The trio’s college was about 150 miles from the camp, so as the bus was finally approaching the entrance, Adora could not contain her excitment. More than two hours travelling in that vehicle were getting on her nerves, she already wanted to see the lake, run barefoot through the soft grass and breath the pure air of the place. Angella and Micah were waiting for them there with a huge smile on their face. Glimmer ran, and almost tripped, to embrace them in a hug as soon as the bus opened the doors announcing their arrival. She hadn’t seen her parents in months, being away for college. After the family reunion, Adora and Bow greteed the couple as well, receiving a warm hug each and a reminder of how glad they were to have Glimmer’s friends there with her once more. 

“Have the new recruits arrived? I’m so excited to meet them!” Said Bow, his eyes glistening. 

“They have,” Angella answered. “Entrapta is giving them a tiny tour around the camp. They seem friendly enough, you would like to know after last year’s experience.” 

“Jeez, don’t even mention it,” Bow rolled his eyes. 

Entrapta was the ninth counselor, although she barely interacted with the kids, basically because she was terrible with them. She was more like a “manager”, in charge of the administration and well-functioning of the camp, and she was terrific at her job. But also she would cover up for the other counselors in case they got sick or needed a break. Adora could never fully establish a friendship with Entrapta, mostly because whenever they spoke the woman would not stop talking about camp stadistics, such as how many boys had cried during the week or how many bread kilograms were consumed during the month, and she founded all her chattering incomprehensible at times. But she valued Entrapta’s dedication and company greatly, and admired how fast her mind worked seemingly without effort. 

Angella and Micah helped the trio to take out the luggage from the bus and then told them they would take it to their respective cabins. Of course Adora insisted on doing so herself, but the couple begged them, not to say commanded them, to go to the dinning room and grab some pastries Spinnerella an Netossa had just baked. They were the camp chefs, a lovely married couple whom Adora loved dearly. Especially because of the pastries they made. The first time she had had one of them, she felt as if a new part of her taste buds were being woken up. Nothing she had ever tasted compared to that exquisite flavor that hunted her during those craving study nights at college. She had to admit, probably one of the things she was more excited about coming back to camp was being able to have one of those celestials pastries once more. 

So Adora, Bow and Glimmer thanked Angella and Micah for the help and made their way to their dinning room, already savouring the pastries with their minds. The camp was silent then, as the campers would not arrive within a week. That time was dedicated for training the counselors. Angella and Micah hired all types of professionals who came to teach them about group psycology, first aids, counseling and leadership, and all other kind of activities to ensure the safety of the campers. The trio had already been trained last year, but Glimmer’s parents thought it was neccesary tthey attended the lessons anyways, to refresh their memories and be as well prepared as they could be. 

Adora loved the children, she really did, but the place without them brought her a peace she hadn’t found in any other place. The field, the silence, the soft breeze and the sun beaming in the sky had a soothing effect on her. Weird enough, they also brought her a sense of nostalgia, but for something or someone she felt she hadn’t met or seen in her life before. She couldn’t quite understand it or put it into words either. 

The smell from the pastries could be sensed from miles away. Adora’s tummy growled with anticipation. Spinerrella and Netossa received them with the warmest hugs and then the trio finally devoured the sweet little cakes. 

“Jesus Christ! You have really outdone youserselves this time,” Adora told the couple with her mouth full of raspberry jelly. 

“If when I die God doesn’t receive me in Haven with these pastries, I will be very disappointed,” Bow said. 

“Agreed,” Adora almost choked from eating two pastries at the same time. 

They had almost finished a whole plate full of pastries when they heard voices coming out from outside. They immediately recognized Entrapta’s voice. It was not difficult to do so, really, as she was always screaming rather than talking. 

“And this is the dinning room! Breakfast is at eight in the morning, lunch at twelve and dinner at six. Spinerrella and Netossa are the chefs, they also have snacks for you waiting at all times of the day if you get hungry.” 

“Those must be the new recruits! Let’s go meet them!” And before the girls could respond, Bow was already rushing outside. Adora and Glimmer followed him, not as eagerly but still somewhat curious. They were, after all, the people who were going to spend the next two months with. 

Entrapta and the crew were just beside the dinning room entrance. When they reached the door, Bow was already there, being hugged and lifted off the ground as if he was weightless by a tall and buff lady with an undercut. Next to her there was a much smaller girl. She had blonde, curly hair that reached her hips, and was wearing a simple pink dress with a flower pattern. And next to her there was... 

“Catra?!” Adora could not believe her eyes. It was her, undoubtedly, although she was very different from the last time she had seen her four years ago. Her cheekbones were sharper, erasing any sign of that young girl she remembered. Her curls were longer, reaching almost her butt. And her body, she was curvier, her hips and her waist more defined. But what surprised Adora the most, was the way she looked at her. She was fierce, fire coming out of her pupils. If looks could kill, Adora would have certainly died right there. 

“Adora? What are _you_ doing here?” As she spoke, Catra approached her until they were just centimiters away from each other. 

“I... I work here,” Adora could not think straight, especailly with Catra invading her personal space like that. 

“I thought you were living one hundred and fifty a miles away from here!” 

“I am, but I came here to work during the summer.” 

“Jesus, this is just _perfect_ ,” Catra turned her back on Adora then, taking one hand to her forhead and stroking it softly. “I finally get a decent paying job and turns out I have to work with you of all people.” 

“Is anyone going to explain what the heck is going on here?” Entrapta interrupted, clearly disturbed by the situation. The girls had been so caught up on their reunion they had completely forgotten there were other people present with them. 

Bow apporached her and audibly whispered into her year. “I believe Catra is Adora’s long lost childhood best friend.” 

“I can hear you Bow,” Adora said. “And it’s true, Catra and I grew up together at foster care.” 

Of course Bow and Glimmer knew who Catra was. They had been Adora’s friends for two years by then and conversations revolving around Adora’s upbringing were inevitable. 

“Oh,” Entrapta nodded, while taking out her notepad and writing out something on it. “So I take it you didn’t end up your relationship on the best terms, right? Giving the overall hostility in the atmosphere.” 

“It’s more complicated than that,” Adora responded, staring at the floor unable to meet Catra’s eyes. For about two seconds they were all silent, the air growing thicker around them. 

“Well, anyways!” Bow was, as usual, trying to calm things down a little. He approached the other girl, the one with the pink dress who hadn’t spoken a word yet and extended his hand to her. “I didn’t have the chance to present myself to you. I’m Bow, nice to meet you.” 

“Perfuma, the pleasure is all mine,” she said while taking his hand in hers. The presentations continued. The buff girl with an undercut was named Scorpia, and she was far colder when greeting Adora than when she had greeted Bow. There was no hug, she even seemed to extend her hand almost by obligation so as not to be rude, but her expression was like a rock, and she was standing as straight as possible, as if trying to look intimidating. 

“So you are Adora. Honestly, I thought I’ll never get the chance to meet you.” 

“I’m sorry, what?” 

“Catra and I are roomates, she has told me a lot about you.” 

“I see. Well, It’s nice to meet you Scorpia,” but the girl only nodded in response. 

Once presentations were over, the trio went their own way, separating from the rest of the group. Adora was feeling a little bit sick, and asked her friends if they would accompany her near the lake because she wanted some fresh air. They sat by the edge of it, Adora finally relaxing from that whole mess. Her friends presence always made her heart feel more at ease. 

“Are you alright, Adora?” Bow asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. 

“Me? I’m perfect. Everything is perfect. I’m alright!” 

“Come on Adora, we know you. And you are also really fucking pale. No need to pretend everything is alright around us. You know we won’t judge you,” Glimmer consoled her. She was right, Adora knew it. But it was always so hard to speak about the matters of her heart with them, or to anyone really. She thought she looked pitiful and weak, and she despised that feeling. 

“It’s just so... unexpected. I thought I would never see Catra again.” 

“Well, everything happens for a reason I guess. Maybe it’s destiny, that wants you to finally close that chapter of your life. I know it still haunts you at times, even though you try to deny it. This is a great opportunity to make things up.” 

Adora smiled at Bow’s words, she liked that idea, even if it sounded impossible at the time. She also wondered when did her friends get to understand her so incredibly well, even more than she understood herself. 

“Thanks guys. I really appreciate it.” 

“That’s what friends are for,” Bow said and bent down his head a little to give her a peck on the forehead. 

“I would also like to point out that I might be a hot mess these weeks if I don’t solve things quickly, and I apologize in advance for any dramatic scene I might perform,” she was half joking, she knew it was all going to be a huge emotional rollescoaster. 

The whole training week had passed and Catra had done nothing more than to avoid Adora. No matter how hard Adora tried to get through her, Catra’s eyes remained as vicious as their first encounter. Adora’s attempts to create small talk had failed over and over again, as Catra showed no interest in maintaining a conversation with her. Her responses were no more than a yes, a no, or a nod, o worst of all, complete silence. Adora was baffled. Of course she understood where Catra’s anger was coming from, but the had expected to break the ice a little by the end of the week before the campers arrived. 

The fact that they shared a cabin together didn’t help either. Bow had lighten up some incense on the room because he said the bad energy in there could be sensed from his own cabin on the other side of camp. Catra was not at all pleased, complaining about the strong odor and threatening Adora about making her sleep outside if she ever let Bow and Glimmer put another foot on her personal space. 

Adora was, to say the least, completly heartbroken. She had expected the whole situation to be bad, but seeing Catra like this just made her heart ache more than she could have imagined. She was so different from her old Catra, much colder, much more agressive. It was as if her childhood friend had been muerdered and replaced by an evil, and older, clone. She couldn’t recognize any of her old pal in this new Catra, but she hoped that in time she could break that wall that had appeared between them and get to see the dorky and affectionate Catra she remembered. 

It was the day before the campers arrived that she finally got to have a small conversation with Catra. She was sitting by the edge of the lake, her arms wrapped around her legs, and she was very entertained watching the ants work on the ground. Adora saw her chance and approached her, sitting by her side at a reasonable distance. Catra glanced at her, expressionless, but surprisingly she didn’t stand up and left Adora alone. 

“Come to bother me again?” Catra asked, her eyes fixed on the ground. 

“Can’t I enjoy the lake as well?” 

“There’s plenty of space over there. Why near me?” 

Adora sighed. “Catra, why are you being like this? I’m really trying, but you are not making things easy.” 

Catra took a moment to respond, maybe because she was thinking about an answer, or maybe because saying it out aloud was just too painful for her. “You know why.” 

“It’s been four years.” 

“So? Do you still expect me to let you into my life again as if nothing had happened? You hurt me, Adora, and there’s nothing you can do to change that now.” 

“I know,” Adora answered, almost in a whisper, “and you have no idea of now much I hate myself for that.” 

Catra must had perceived Adora wasn’t lying, as she finally turned to look at her in the eyes. Adora met her gaze, and for a second that flame that had consumed them seemed to have disappeared. She saw her eyes naked then, as when they were just two innocent children. She thought about how incredibly beautiful they were now, and at how much she had missed them. They stayed like that for a couple of seconds, neither wanting to say anything nor to leave. Until a bird chirping in the distance distracted them. 

“You know,” Adora said, “this lake kind of reminds me of the one that was near the orphanage, the one Mrs. Weaver used to take us sometimes.” 

Catra twitched a little at their old guardian’s mention. “I hated that place.” 

“Really? I thought you loved it.” 

“I mean, the place was cool, don’t get me wrong, I just hated going there with you,” Adora was startled at the confession, as she remembered Catra always being so happy there. “You would always challenge me to play ducks and drakes, and you would _always_ win, it was infurating.” 

“Sorry, I guess,” Adora said. Catra didn’t respond, she was silent again for some time and then she picked up a flat rock from the ground, stood up, and threw it towards the lake, make in it bounce four times against the water. Then she turned to look back at Adora, and she would have sworn Catra was almost smiling. 

Adora raised her eyebrow and stood up, intrigued. She mimicked the other girl’s action, but her rock did not bounce four times, but six. None of them said a word, but a challenge was pacted between the two. Catra threw another rock, it bounced seven times. Adora made her rock bounce seven times as well. Catra was pleased at that, and on her next shot the rock bounced eight times. She turned to look at Adora, as smug as ever, her eyes glistening with the savour of victory. But, of course, Adora was not ready to give up. She searched for the flatest, most perfect rock she could find. Catra rolled her eyes at how long she was taking. When she found it, she took a deep breath and frowned her eyebrows, her mind only focusing on her arm’s movment. Adora counted fourteen bounces, Catra fifteen. It was Adora’s new record, and she was thrilled about it, but it quickly turned into a bittersweet victory as she met Catra’s eyes, suddenly finding that blazing look on them again. 

“Ass,” she said, “you got lucky.” 

And before Adora could respond, Catra turned away and left her alone with her thoughts.


	2. The game

First day had gone well enough. They hadn’t done much but to hear the kids’ presentations and show them around camp. They were exactly thirty children, the maximum, allowed. Adora and Catra had been assigned the group of twelve to fourteen years old, which was Adora’s favorite group. They weren’t that little so they didn’t have to be supervised every minute of the day, and the bigger campers were just a bunch of horny kids who wanted to hang out with their friends without being bothered. Of course many campers had attended the camp since they were little, and therefore were already familiar with each other. Some of the kids even remembered Adora from last summer and secretly told her that Catra was not as nice as she was. 

But Catra wasn’t terrible either. At the end of the day, it was the job she had signed in for and knew the terms and conditions, she simply wasn’t as pacient and affectionate as her partner. While Adora would let the kids hug her, braid her hair, talk to her for hours about their crushes and and even film tiktok’s with her, Catra would politely tell them she didn’t like to be touched and would tell the girls that boys were a waist of time and that they shouldn’t bother having crushes on them. 

The second day was a beautiful one. Not a cloud to be seen, the sun receiving them as radiant as ever. But it was not hot either, as a comforting summer breeze blew over the place. Adora and Catra decided it was a nice day to organize a football game. They asked the kids’ if they liked the idea and all of them screamed in a joyful affirmation. They selected one random boy and one random girl to be the team captains, and soon the children were having a blast, completly devoting themselves to the game while Adora and Catra acted as referees. 

However, after the first half of the game, one team was loosing three to cero. Adora could not bare to see the disappointment in the kids’ faces, so she announced that on the second half she would enter the loosing team and play with them. The enemy team didn’t complain at first, they were too cocky after completly beating the other team’s ass and thought Adora would not make that much of a difference. But they really underestimated her ability with the ball. Within the first two minutes she had already scored a goal, and of course the whinings about how unfair it was that they had Adora as a teammate started. 

“We should have Catra on our team!” One of the kids complained. 

Catra, who was not as sporty as Adora and clearly didn’t want to involve herself into this, excused herself by saying that she couldn’t go in because the game would have no referee. 

“Come on Catra! What’s the problem? Afraid to lose?” Adora teased her, smirking at her. 

“What?! No!” Adora was good, she knew Catra couldn’t back down then, she was too prideful for that. The children also, to Adora’s delight, started chanting “Catra! Catra! Catra!” 

Catra rolled her eyes, realizing she didn’t have much a choice. “Okay, fine!” 

The campers started cheering at her in ovation. The referee problem was quicly solved, as Scorpia and Perfuma were just passing by with a couple of kids. They were in charge of the group from six to eight years old, who were enjoying their everyday nap at the moment while Entrapta looked after them. The few children with them were the ones who were not in the mood to sleep. Adora asked them if they wanted to play as well, and the kids were thrilled with the idea of playing with the older campers. 

So the match continued, but Catra was in this time. It did not take Adora that much of an effort to score two more goals, her precense on the team had boosted her teammates’ confidence, who were suddenly dedicating themselves much more to the game than during the first half of it, demostrating they were not as bad players as they had seemed. Adora saw Catra’s face turning red, and she wasn’t sure if it was due to the effort she was making or because she was furious about Adora defeating her once again. Adora, however, was surprised at Catra’s skills with the ball. She remembered her friend playing much worser when they were little. But Adora had always had a natural ability for sporty activities, and it was difficult for Catra to beat her. 

There were only two minutes left for the match to end, and Adora was determined to score the winning goal. She stormed against the enemy team, passing the ball every now and then to her teammates so they could enjoy the game as well. But they were hungry for the win, and they always sent the ball back to Adora because they knew she would lead them to victory. 

But Adora was in for a surprise. Catra had, apparently, been closely studying her playing style. So when Adora launched herself against the other girl, confident she would easily avoid her, Catra was able to quickly take the ball from Adora’s feet. She had been so fast it left Adora startled, unable to do anything but to watch as Catra ran towards her team’s arc. Some of the kids tried to stop her, but she was an unstoppable force, dodging everyone in an almost graceful way. And although Adora hated to admit it, she looked incredibly hot in the act. 

Of course she scored the winning goal. Her teammates roared in amusement and ran to hug her, and surprisingly Catra left them embrace them. Then she told them to shake the other team’s hands, and she approached Adora to do so herself. 

“Well played,” she told her, in the most pretentious tone possible and with a smug look on her face. Adora shook her hand, and she thought how even though Catra was just trying to annoy her, the only thing she had achieved was to impress her. 

“You too,” Adora answered. They stared at each other for some seconds, their hands still holding each other. Adora didn’t know why, but there was something inside her that didn’t want to let it go. And by the look on Catra’s face, she realized she felt the same. They were interrupted by Scorpia, who came to hug Catra, lifting her off the ground and congratulating her. 

“Way to go, wildcat! Who knew you could play like that!” 

Catra smiled. “Kicking Adora’s ass was all the motivation I needed.” 

“I can hear you, you know?” Adora said. 

“I know,” Catra answered, looking at her right in the eyes, the smirk on her face not abandoning her for the rest of the day. 

They were about to go to sleep. It had been a long day and they both were very tired. Adora had just finished brushing her teeth while Catra was lying in bed with her phone. 

“Catra, can I ask you something?” 

“No.” 

“Well, I’m going to ask it anyways.” 

Catra sighed, “of course you will,” she sounded pissed already. 

“If you hate me so much, why didn’t you ask to be paired with Scorpia when you found out we were going to be partners?” 

Catra was silent for a moment, probably deciding if it was a question worth answering. “Listen, I love Scorpia as much as everyone else does. But we live together, sometimes you just need a break.” 

Suddenly, a thought crossed Adora’s mind. They lived together, Scorpia called her pet names, you know, _wildcat_ , Catra said she loved her... She haven’t seen them kissing or anything, but Catra wasn’t the PDA type either. 

“Have you two...?” Adora cautiously asked. 

“What?” 

“You know.” 

“I don’t,” Catra’s annoyance seemed to be growing. 

“Been together or something? I mean you live together...” 

At the comment, Catra sat on the bed and peeped out her head from the upper part of the litter to look at Adora, raising her eyebrow. “Why you ask?” She sounded more curious than mad now, although there was still a taint of irritation in her tone. 

“I’m just trying to have a conversation with you.” 

“Well, that’s none of you business,” Catra told her, and went back to look at her phone. 

“Come on, Catra, would it really kill you to be nice with me? We are going to spend the next two months together, you know?” 

“Oh, yes. I’m well aware of that, and if you keep on reminding me I might throw myself into the lake tonight and never come back.” 

Adora growled, “ugh, you are impossible,” and after turning off the lights she went to bed as well. 

There was no sound but some crickets singing on the outside. Adora was frustrated at Catra’s coldness, but it didn’t last much as she soon started to feel the weight of her pupils dragging her to sleep. She was almost dreaming when Catra’s voice awakened her. 

“We haven’t.” 

“What?” Adora was confused. For a moment, she thought Catra was just talking in her sleep. She used to do so sometimes, at least when they were little. 

“We haven’t been together, Scorpia and I.” 

“Oh,” Adora couldn’t deny she was a little happy about it, even though she didn’t really understand why. Why should she care, anyways? She remembered, however, the way Scorpia stared at Catra when she wasn’t looking. And the hostile way in which Scorpia treated her in general, most probably because she knew she had hurt Catra and just wanted to protect her friend. “Well, she seems to be quite taken with you,” Adora told Catra. 

“I know,” Catra said, but she didn’t sound happy about it. 

Adora thought maybe Catra was right, it wasn’t her business, she was just being nosy after all. But she couldn’t help her curiosity either. “And? How do you feel about it?” 

“I really don’t want to talk about it.” 

“It’s alright.” 

It seemed the conversation had reached its end, but Adora didn’t want it to. She had wondered what had been of her friend’s life a thousand times in the past years. Had Catra moved away from the city? Had she met a beautiful girl and fallen in love? Had she succeded on her dream of travelling the whole world? Had she been happy? All of those answers were right at the tip of her fingers now, but it seemed almost impossible to break down the armour Catra had built for herself. 

It didn’t help that Catra didn’t use social any social media either. She only had a private Instagram account Adora had been tempted to follow numerous times. Not only to satiate her curiosity, but also to remind Catra that she existed and that the still thought about her. But she was always too much of a coward to do it. She was afraid Catra would accept her only to tell her to fuck off, or that she would block her, or that she would simply deny the request because she most probably hated her. Adora was also afraid of what she would find on that profile. Seeing Catra again, even if it was only a picture on the screen of her phone, could have been painful. It could have brought memories, memories she was trying to bury, to let go. Seeing her friend again would have been a reminder of her past mistakes, the ones that made it so difficult to forgive herself. The ones that made her live in a constant state of guilt and regret. So no, she never had the guts to face all of that and send her a request. If only she would have known sooner how things would turn out to be. 

“So, how did you end up living with Scorpia, anyways?” Adora asked, hoping Catra would not avoid her this time. 

“Full of questions, aren’t we Adora?” but this time Catra didn’t sound elusive, it was more of a playful tone, almost teasing. 

“Well, excuse me for showing interest, I guess.” 

“If you really want to know... After you were adopted I started to hang out more with Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio, and realized they were cooler than I thought. Anyways, when we all turned eighteen we decided to rent an apartment all together, because we all had mediocre jobs and couldn’t afford it to do it on our own. As you can imagine, none of us made it to college. No scholarship, no money... Scorpia was Lonnie’s co-worker at a coffee shop. She started to hang out more and more with us, and especially with me. I must admit, at first I didn’t like her. She was too enthusiastic and clingy for my taste, but over time I grew fond of her. She helped a lot in every way possible, and after hearing me complain about that stuffy apartment almost everyday, she invited me to live with her. Not for free obviously, and I had to start working as a nanny apart from my job at Subway to pay my part of the rent. But Jesus Christ, was it worth it. I mean, over time I’ve come to care for Lonnie and the boys, but that apartment was a nightmare. Especially after Kyle and Rogelio started dating and were all heart eyes around each other all the time. It was disgusting.” 

Adora laughed. “I can’t believe Kyle and Rogelio finally ended up together. Honestly, I thought they were going to be oblivious for the rest of their lives.” 

“Jeez, me too.” 

There was a silence between them. None of them were sure about what to say, but Adora was desperate to say something, anything, to keep Catra speaking. It was the first time that she had been so outspoken with her since their reunion, and Adora suspected that the darkness, not having to be face to face and make eye contact, made Catra feel a little safer, if that made sense. There was something in the air, in the way she heard Catra breathing above her, in the growing silence that told Adora that Catra wasn’t ready to go to sleep either. 

“Remember that picture Rogelio used to have of Kyle hidden under his bed? That was so embarrasing,” Catra finally said, and Adora couldn’t help but smile. 

“Oh God, how could I forget it? You tortured poor Rogelio for ages because of it." 

“How couldn’t I? He was always so quiet and edgy and then we find out his darkest secret was that he was in love with Kyle, _Kyle_ , the boy who ate crayons until he was like ten and cried whenever he stepped on an ant by accident.” 

Adora bursted into laugher, “come on, don’t be so mean. Kyle was cool.” 

“He wasn’t. But I must give him some credit, after living with him for almost a year I learnt he bakes the best cakes in the world. And he is very kind and all that crap.” 

Adora didn’t know how much she missed them until that night. Hearing Catra speaking about them reminded her of all those years spent together at the orphanage, and about how much she actually cared for them. 

“How are they? I mean, how are they doing now?” Adora couldn’t contain herself from asking. 

“Just spoke with them today, they are doing fine. Still living together though I suspect Lonnie is waiting for the opportunity to get the hell out of that apartment as well. I told them you were here with me by the way, they were shook. Lonnie told me that by now she thought you were dead or something.” 

Hearing that was like her heart being shattered. All this time she had worried about Catra’s feelings after she left, she almost never stopped to think about her other friends as well. 

“Do you...? Um,” she wasn’t sure about how to formulate the question because she felt she had no right to be asking that kind of question in the first place, “Do you think they miss me?” 

Catra was silent for a couple of seconds. Adora thought she had fucked up and was expecting Catra to answer her in her usual, bitter tone again. But surprinsingly, Catra’s answer sounded more sorrowful than anything else. Adora thought that was much worse. 

“I don’t know Adora. Maybe. After you left, we didn’t speak much about you, to be honest. If you really want to know, maybe you should send them a message,” by the way she said it, Adora didn’t sense Catra’s words as an accusation, but maybe as a way of telling her it was not late to amend her past actions. 

“Maybe I will,” she told her. And there was silence again, but this time Adora didn’t feel Catra’s eagerness not to let the conversation die. She realized she was exhausted as well, and tomorrow they had to wake up early so it was time to finally go to sleep. 

“Well, good night Catra.” 

“Good night Adora.” 

And she fell asleep with a heavy feeling on her chest.


	3. The movie

It was Thursday, of the second week. Adora had been working non-stop the last days and was craving for Sunday to arrive. It would be her first day-off since she had arrived to the camp. Entrapta had covered Catra one day she was feeling particularly worn out, but Adora insisted she was fine and she could handle it till Saturday afternoon when the campers left. That morning she woke up seriously doubting her past self. She could barely open her eyes and Catra went to pat her shoulder thinking she was still asleep. 

“Adora, wake up, we are going to be late for breakfast.” 

Catra had gotten a little softer over the last few days. The first week, she would have never even considered waiting for Adora for breakfast, and she wouldn’t have touched her, only scream at her and complain about her slowing them down. Of course Catra was still distant and evasive at times, but Adora felt she was finally making some progress. They spoke a lot more, Catra getting more and more talkative as that energetic and dorky girl Adora remembered. 

For a moment, Adora considered in taking her day off and tell Entrapta to cover for her, but as she opened her eyes and glanced out the window, she saw the sky completely grey. She got up slowly, still dizzy from sleep and stretching her whole body. Before getting ready, she stepped outside to test the temperature. It was drizzling, and a freezing cold breeze blew around the place giving her goosebumps. 

“Jesus, I had forgotten how cold it can get over this part of the country,” she told Catra stepping back inside. She had gotten accostumed to the warmer climate of her new home. Catra didn’t answer, she was too busy struggling to get her mane under control. Adora always thought Catra’s curls were beautiful, and she found it amusing to see her battling with them. She unconsciously sticked out her tongue and knitted her brows in concentration, and Adora thought it was kind of cute. 

Reconsidering her idea of taking the day off, she realized the bad weather gave them the perfect opportunity for some relaxing activities, like watching a movie. She asked Catra for her opinion and she agreed. The camp had two big halls specially designed for indoor activities, so during breakfast all the counselours discussed how they would divide the spaces. Mermista and Sea Hawk said their group, the eldest group, had asked them if they could rest during the morning because they were tired, so they wouldn’t be using any of the halls. So Scorpia and Perfuma would use one of the halls while Glimmer and Bow’s group shared the other hall with Adora and Catra’s one. 

Adora proposed to watch a movie with the condition that they let her choose which one, and they couldn’t know which one it was. None of them complained about it, although her best friends already suspected which movie she was talking about. 

The hall was so cold that everyone let out steam out of their mouths as they breathed. As the place was desgined for warmer weather, there were no heaters, but the counselours went to fetch a couple of blankets that the camp kept in a store room for these type of situations. The kids had to share them, of course, as there were not enough for everyone. While Catra was handing around the blankets to the campers, Adora was putting on the movie. There was a projector connected to a computer at their disposal for the indoor activities. 

Once everyone was ready, Adora hit play and went to sit at the back with Catra on one side and Bow on the other. Glimmer and him were wrapped together in a blanket, and although Catra had given out all of the other blankets, Adora’s friends had been kind enough to save her one. 

The movie started and just after the first second of the intro, Bow and Glimmer said “I knew it,” at unison. They turned to look at Adora, whose eyes were sparkling with excitement. 

“Seriously? You are making them watch She-Ra? Don’t you think they are a bit old for this movie?” Catra said. 

“You are never too old to watch She-Ra,” Adora responded, pretending to be offended. Catra rolled her eyes. 

“It’s Adora’s favorite movie, she makes us watch it _all_ the time,” Bow said, looking at Catra. 

“I know,” she responded, sharply, “I grew up with her, remember? Probably watched it more than you two,” Adora looked at her, perplexed. She had that flame in her eyes again, the one she got whenever she was pissed. Could she possibly be jealous of her new friends? 

Bow and Glimmer were just as surprised as Adora for the harsh response. They stared at Catra, then at each other, unsure of what to say. They remained silent, but Glimmer couldn’t contain herself from giving Catra her coldest, most threatening look. Catra glared back at her, and for a second Adora thought they were seriously going to start arguing with each other, but Glimmer ended up turning her head and looking back at the movie. Catra smiled at herself for that, as if she had just won a contest secretly pacted between them. 

Ten minutes into the movie, Adora had been so abstracted into it, she hadn’t noticed Catra was freezing beside her. She didn’t have a blanket with her, so she was covering her legs with her arms while shivering. Adora looked at her and immediately felt like crap for not having acknowledged her presence earlier. She got a little bit closer to her and unwrapped herself from the blanket to extend her arm to Catra, silently inviting her to share it as Bow and Glimmer were doing. 

Catra simply frowned and whispered, “there’s no way I’m snuggling with you,” clearly irritated at the proposal. 

Adora rolled her eyes and whispered back, “fine, have it your way,” and she completly let go of the blanket, handing it to Catra. She wasn’t that cold anyways. This time Catra looked at her in utter disbelief, her mouth opening a little in surprise. She didn’t thank her, but rapidly took the blanket and curled up herself in it. For about ten minutes, she kept glancing at Adora from time to time, as if wanting to tell her something, or maybe simply checking she wasn’t getting cold. Then, she slowly approached Adora until their shoulders were touching each other, and without saying anything, without even looking at her, she picked up the blanket and put it around Adora’s back, wrapping both of them with it. 

Adora turned to look at her with a smug smile on her face, and was about to tell her something when Catra interrupted her: “don’t say a word.” There was still a bitter tone on her voice, but Adora was starting to think it was all a facade by now. 

Their whole bodies were touching each other then. Every now and then, their hands would get accidentaly tangled between them and in those moments Adora could feel how Catra’s breathing intensified. She wasn’t sure why though, if she was embarrased, maybe flustered... Or maybe she was enjoying this more than she would like to, and knowing that angered her. Either way, Adora was undoubtedly having a good time. She liked having Catra that close to her, she liked the way she smelled, and the way she was always getting her curls out of her face because they didn’t let her see, and the way she smiled when there was a part she found funny about the movie. She had always missed her old friend, but having her right next to her, enjoying themselves as when they were younger, made her realize how much she actually needed her back in her life. She just hoped it wasn’t too late for that. 

They spent the rest of the afternoon in the hall, as the storm only got worse with every hour. They taught the kids how to do arts and crafts using recyclable items, a classic and perfect activity for these kind of days. 

After dinner, Adora went to Bow and Glimmer’s cabin to hang out with them for a little while. She barely had the time to be with them as she was always with her group, and when the night fell she was feeling so exhausted she simply wanted to go to bed. But she found herself missing her best friends’ company that night, and decided that visiting them for at least a couple of minutes would be a good idea. 

“So, how are things going with Catra? You seemed to be doing pretty well today,” Bow said, winking at her. 

“She’s still a bit distant, but I think I’m finally starting to get through her. Took me long enough though, she’s much more... difficult than I remember. But I get it, I can’t expect her to be nice with me after all.” 

“Yeah, well, she’s a little bit of a bitch, isn’t she?” Glimmer said. 

“Glimmer!” Bow screamed, scowling her. 

“What?!” his friend tried to defend herself, “I’m sorry, okay? But did you see how she answered you today when you commented on She-Ra? If I had to share a room with someone who talked to me like that I wouldn’t make it. And also, what was the big deal about it? Why did she snap like that? Jeez.” 

“I believe she was just jealous of you two,” Adora said, trying to calm Glimmer down. She couldn’t blame her for being mad though, she knew Catra could be problematic, she had always been like that, especially this last two weeks. 

“Jealous?” Bow questioned, taking a hand to his chin, “I mean, yeah, nobody can’t deny we are pretty cool friends.” 

“I guess I would be jealous too if I saw my childhood best friend hanging around with other people who pretended to know them better than I do,” Glimmer admited. 

“Oh, you don’t say!” Bow said, sarcastically “just the other day you were making a scene because I was hanging out with Perfuma!” 

“Oh, shut up,” Glimmer said and gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder, “I’ve already apologized for that.” 

“I know, I know. I’m not mad about it, it’s just funny to see you getting jealous over me.” 

They laughed about it for a while and then Bow changed the subject to the Saturday night party he was organizing. Since last year, the weekeds where all the counselours had a day off, Bow organized a little party between them. It was simple, they just put up a fire, Sea Hawk sang some of his songs, they got drank, relaxed, had a good time. Bow always got really excited about it, he loved uniting all the counselours and, well, parties in general. 

“You have told Catra, haven’t you? Scorpia and Perfuma are coming,” Bow asked Adora, his eyes glistening. He was probably imagining the perfect party scenario in his mind. 

“To be honest with you, no. I forgot about it.” 

“Well, what are you waiting for? Go tell her! She’s the only one who hasn’t confirmed yet.” 

“Are you just looking for an excuse to kick me out of your cabin now?” Adora joked. 

“What? No! I’m just really impatient! You know how I get about parties. Also if she comes it would be a great chance for Glimmer and I to show her we aren’t her competition, right Glimmer?” he turned to look at her with puppy eyes. 

Glimmer sighed, “whatever.” 

“It is getting late anyways, I should be going. I still need to get a shower,” Adora said. She kissed her friends goodbye on the forehead and returned to her own cabin, not before having to hear Bow reminding her to tell Catra about the party three more times. 

As Adora opened the cabin door, she heard music coming from the inside. She immediately recognized the song: _Tainted Love_ from Soft Cell. Was Catra listening to this? She entered and called for the other girl, but there was no response, she probably couldn’t hear her because of the high volume. The music was coming from the bathroom, so Adora approached it, only to find something she thought she would never see in her entire life. 

The bathroom door was open, revealing Catra wearing her pajamas, her hair wet from showering, holding the hair brush with both hands. She was facing the mirror, giving her back to Adora, and had her eyes closed as she sang “ _Don’t touch me, please! I cannot stand the way you tease! I love you though you hurt me so..._ ” and used the comb as her microphone. She was so abstracted in the act, she didn’t notice Adora was enjoying the concert behind her. Adora was shocked, for a variety of reasons. First of all, because she didn’t know Catra was a singer, and a terrific one apparently. Second, because she couldn’t believe Catra hadn’t noticed her yet. And most importantly, because she thought Catra looked adorable as hell doing that. 

Then, Catra finally opened her eyes, and saw Adora staring at her through the mirror. She rapidly stopped singing and turned to face Adora. Catra wasn’t just blushing, she had turned completely red and looked as if Adora had just found her burying a dead body rather than singing. 

“Adora!” she squealed, “what the fuck are you doing here?” 

“Enjoying the show, obviously,” Adora smirked at her, amused by her reaction. 

“Ugh,” Catra rolled her eyes, stopping the music, “just please tell me you’ll forget this ever happened.” 

“Oh, trust me, I couldn’t even if I tried,” She kept on teasing her. 

Catra didn’t answer, she simply covered her face with both hands and got out of the bathroom, heading to her bed. 

“I love that song, you know?” Adora told her. “Now every time I’ll listen to it I’ll hear your beautiful voice in my mind as well,” she was half joking, but she had to admit she liked seeing Catra lose all her confidence for once. 

“Shut up!” she growled, throwing her a pillow. 

Adora caught it mid air and laughed. “Come on, I’m just messing up with you. But you, um, do have a beautiful voice.” 

Catra gave her a half smile, “thanks,” and that being said she climbed into the upper part of the litter and collapsed into her bed. 

Adora thought that by the time she had finished showering, Catra would be probably asleep, so that was the only moment she had to tell her about the party. 

“So...” Adora said, “this Saturday night Bow is throwing a little party, here at camp. Just a tiny reunion, between the counselours. We’ll probably get drunk and lit up a fire. Last year we did it every two weekends when we all had our days off. Scorpia and Perfuma are coming, and he wanted to know if you were going as well.” 

“A party? With eight people?” 

“Yeah, yeah. I told you, It’s more like a tiny reunion, but Bow likes to call it a party because, well, he loves parties.” 

Catra thought about it for a second. “And what do Angella and Micah think about this? Don’t they get mad we drink at camp?” 

“Well... They don’t really know about it. I mean, they know we get together and make a bonfire and all that, but they don’t know we drink. Entrapta is our bodyguard, she doesn’t like parties so she entertains herself spying their cabin. If she sees they are approaching us or anything, she gives us a call and we quickly hide all the evidence. But they never bother us, unless they are passing by to go to the dinning the room or something they don’t really care about what we are doing.” 

“And where do you get the alcohol from?” 

Adora laughed, “Sea Hawk and Mermista brought most of it. I mean, last year it was more of a spontaneous thing. Sea Hawk had brought some liquor and he decided he wanted to share it with us, so one thing led to another and we all ended up drunk singing with him because of that one bottle. The other three weekends we just went to buy it to a warehouse that’s like, almost two miles away from here. But this year they came in prepared for it, they brought like six liquor bottles between the two.” 

“Damn.” 

“Yeah. Well, are you coming or not? It will be fun, I promise,” Adora looked at the other girl with puppy eyes. 

“I mean, there’s not much else to do around here so, guess I don’t have much of an option.” 

“You could go spy Angella and Micah with Entrapta,” Adora joked. 

“No, thanks. I prefer to listen to Sea Hawk’s awful singing.” 

“Great. I’ll tell Bow about it, he’ll be thrilled to know you’ll be there.” Adora took out her phone and texted her friend the news, who replied with a a dozen stickers of happy kitties. 

“Well, I’m going to take a shower. Good night, Catra. Don’t sing in your sleep,” she teased her one last time, not being able to contain herself. 

“Good night, asshole.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the equivalent of "omg there was only one bed" but "omg there was only one blanket"


	4. The party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No spoilers but I highly reccomend you listen to the songs Tainted Love by Soft Cell and Better by Khalid before reading, as they play an important part in the chapter

After days of longing for it to arrive, it was finally Saturday. It was a bittersweet feeling for Adora, however. On one hand, she was really going to miss the campers. She always got too attached with them and ended up almost in tears when it was time to say goodbye. Although on the other hand, she was already savouring the comforting, long nap she had planned for that afternoon. 

Some of the kids cried during the farewell, hugging Adora and telling her they were going to miss her. She consoled them by telling them they could always return the following year, and that she would be there to receive them once more. Surprisingly, Catra let the children hug her as well. It was no secret that Adora was their favorite, but they clearly loved the other girl too. Even if she wasn’t as affectionate as her partner, it was Catra the one who told the campers ghost stories before bed, and the one who brought them pastries whenever they were feeling homesick, and the one who taught them the best homemade pranks for bothering their siblings when they returned home, (without Angella and Micah knowing about this, of course). Even if Catra didn’t want to admit it, Adora knew she had grown fond of the campers as much as she had, and that she was also going to miss them terribly. 

The children were gone by 3 P.M, dinner was at 6 P.M and Bow wasn’t expecting them until after dinner, so that gave Adora at least two hours of sleep for the afternoon. She was worn out, especially after the emotional departure of the campers. She told Catra about her plans and that she would meet her at the dinning room for supper, and that being said she made her way to her cabin. She closed every courtain so that the room would be as dark as possible. She didn’t put on her pajamas as she hadn’t showered yet, but she removed her bra and her sweatpants, she loved feeling the cold blankets against the bare skin. She undid her ponytail, massaging her scalp to ease the pain of having her hair up since the morning. Finally, she put on on an alarm for 5:30 P.M and closed her eyes. It took her about two minutes to fall completely asleep. 

It was not the alarm what woke up Adora, but Catra. Adjusting her eyes to the light, Adora saw her friend’s hair was wet, and past the inital confusion she realized Catra had probably showered recently. She was softly patting her shoulder, and staring at her directly into her eyes while whispering something Adora couldn’t quite understand. 

“Adora, Adora? Are you awake? Your friends are here.” 

“Wha-What?” Adora muffled, her mind still drifting between reality and her dreams. 

“Bow and Glimmer, thay are here, they want to see you.” 

“Did you tell them that I was asleep?” 

“No, but they said it’s important.” 

Adora sighed, they’d better have a good reason to wake her up from her delicious nap. She stood up, revealing herself to be only wearing her shirt and her panties. She wasn’t shy about it, Catra and her had been sharing the room for three weeks by then and they had occasionally seen each other in their underwear. But apparently it took Catra by surprise, as she stared at her timidly for a couple of seconds while she put on her jeans, only to quickly shift her look to the ground when Adora looked her way. If Adora hadn’t been still dizzy, she would have sworn Catra was blushing. 

Adora opened the cabin door to reveal her two smiling friends. She probably looked like crap as their grins quickly disappeared from their faces when they saw her. 

“Woah, were you sleeping?” Bow asked. 

Adora nodded in response. “So, what is it?” 

“Well,” Glimmer started, scratching her scalp, clearly uncomfortable. 

“This isn’t important, is it?” Adora interrupted, raising her eyebrow. 

“No, not really,” Glimmer answered, giving her an akward smile. 

Adora let out a small groan. “Well, you’ve already woken me up, so...” 

“Right,” said Bow, “we wanted to know if you wanted to help us with tonight’s playlist. It’s almost finished, anyways, but maybe there were some songs that you or Catra wanted to add or something.” 

Adora couldn’t help but smile, even if she was a little bit annoyed about her nap’s interruption, she couldn’t get mad with her friends. There was something about them, about their energy, that was so full of love and positivism that she simply couldn’t. 

“You really woke me up for this?” she joked, their friends smiling in response. 

“In our defense, we didn’t know you were sleeping,” Glimmer said. “If Catra would have told us, we would have...” 

“Hey! Don’t drag me into this, princess,” Catra screamed from inside the cabin. She had, apparently, been listening to the whole conversation. 

“Is there any song you would like us to add to the playlist?” Bow asked Catra, before Glimmer could respond her and, knowing them, things escalated into an argument. 

“Nope,” she answered, not even looking at him. 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes, I’m sure!” She sounded irritated this time. 

“Alright, alright. What about you Adora?” 

She thought about it for a second. Her friends’ music taste was similar to hers, so she trusted the playlist would be a bomb. But there was one song which came into her mind. 

“Add _Tainted Love_ by Soft Cell,” she said while throwing Catra a provocative look. She stared back at her, frowning, and showed her her middle finger. 

“Uh, eightees, I like it,” Bow said, looking for the song on his phone. “Done! Anything else?” 

“I think we’re fine, I’ll message you if any other song crosses my mind” Adora told him. 

“Okay, see you guys tonight!” Bow and Glimmer waved at them and then disappeared into the night. The camp was honestly a little creepy during nighttime. There were barely any lights illuminating the place, and any spots that were left in the shadows were so dark that seemed to be an endless abyss. 

Adora watched her friends go and then slowly closed the door, turning back to find Catra had positioned herself only centimetres away from where she was standing. Catra stared directly into her eyes, and although she seemed pissed, her gaze remained soft. 

“You are inssuferable,” she said, as she poked Adora’s chest with her index finger. 

“Me?” Adora crossed her arms, smirking at her, “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she teased. 

“I hate you,” Catra said, even though she didn’t seem so sure about it. 

“You know you don’t,” Adora told her, and the other girl only rolled her eyes in response, probably not wanting to admit she was right. 

“I’m going to Scorpia and Perfuma’s. I’ll see you at dinner,” and before Adora could respond, Catra slowly walked past her, their hips barely touching each other, opened the door and giving one final glance to Adora, she got lost in the shadows of the camp as well. She didn’t even close the door, leaving that job to Adora who stayed contemplating the night sky for a few minutes before getting back inside. She loved how many stars could be seen above camp, as the place was not polluted with thousands of electric lights to eclipse them. Back home, she could literally count with her two hands the amount of stars that were visible, but there they seemed to be infinite. They covered the whole sky, thousands and thousands of them, in a way that seemed almost surreal, as if Adora was staring at a painting. 

Once back inside, she checked the time: almost 5 P.M. She sighed, thinking about all that time she could have used for her glorious nap. Before getting into the shower, she turned off her alarm clock and selected her outfit for the night. 

Dinner time was fun, everyone was excited about the party and wouldn’t stop talking about it. Sea Hawk commented on the songs he was planning to play, Scorpia and Perfuma seemed very entertained with Bow and Glimmer’s playlist and were thinking about which songs to add, Glimmer was dowloading a drinking game app on her phone, Bow was just happy to see everyone happy. 

With their bellies full, and well prepared to drink for the rest of the night, the counselors went to one of the camp’s remote corners to lit the bonfire. They wanted to be as far away from Angella and Micah as possible, not only because of their secret agenda involving alcohol but also not to bother them with their singing and laughing. 

While Sea Hawk and Mermista went to look for the alcohol, Adora helped her friends start the fire. In about half an hour, they were all sitting around the place, nearly sweating from the heat of the flames. It was a hot night, and Catra lowkey complained about how the fire was unnecesary. But truth was, it wasn’t, as they would barely see each other without it, and using flashlights would simply kill the mood. Scorpia, who was seating beside her, rambled something about the bonfire representing the counselours gathering all together and becoming friends, and although Catra wasn’t convinced with the motivational speech, it did seemed to lighten her mood a little. 

Some indie song was playing in the background as they all started pouring vodka on the glasses Spinnerella and Netossa had kindly smuggled for them. Glimmer proposed to play that drinking game she had downloaded to get the night started, and they all agreed with the idea. It was a simple one, the phone told the drinkers different dares, or mini-games, or truths, or whatever that they had to accomplish (or not) to drink. For example: Bow was forbidden to say the words “no” and “yes” until further notice, and he had to drink a sip everytime he forgot about it; Glimmer had to say three foods Mermista liked, if she nailed it, Mermista would drink three sips, and she did; Scorpia had to choose two people taller than her to drink four sips, but as she was the tallest, she had to drink them herself; an so on. 

They were all having a blast and slowly starting to get tipsy. Glimmer read out loud the following instruction: they all had to say, by turns, who they considered to be the hottest person in the room, and that person would have to finish their glass. Perfuma said Scorpia, Scorpia said Catra, Glimmer said Adora, Adora said Catra, Catra said -more like whispered- Adora, Mermista said Sea Hawk, Bow said Sea Hawk, and Sea Hawk said Sea Hawk, crowning himself as the winner and finishing his glass in the blink of an eye as if it was water rather than vodka. 

The game continued for a while, but Adora couldn’t get out of her mind the fact that Catra considered her the hottest of them all. She wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol, or the growing heat from the fire, but thinking about it made her cheeks feel warmer and her stomach tingle. Oh, it was definitely the alcohol, she couldn’t believe she was making such a big deal about it. 

Eventually, they grew bored of the game. They were also so drunk they knew it was best to stop for a while, having already finished two entire bottles of vodka. Adora, Bow and Glimmer had started to shamelessly dance together as if they were at a dance club. Perfuma was speaking with Scorpia about her garden back home, and showing her pictures on her phone, and Sea Hawk was tuning up his guitar while talking to Mermista about something Adora wasn’t able to listen. 

It was then when _Tainted Love_ started, and drunk Adora, not being able to contain herself, went directly to look for Catra. She was lying on the grass, staring at the stars. Although she was better at pretending she wasn’t drunk than Adora was, she was still crearly under the effects of alcohol. Adora approached her and found her with her eyes closed, humming the song’s intro she, of course, knew quite well. 

“Care for a dance?” Adora asked her, looking down. 

Catra slowly opened her eyes, struggling to focus, most probably due the alcohol, on the figure above her. “Are you serious?” 

“Serious as I’ll ever be.” 

“No,” she responded, sharply. 

“Come on! I know you love this song as much as I do!” 

Catra thought about it for a second, while Adora kept on singing the first verse as if her life depended on it. It must have amused Catra, because she gave her a half smile and said: “alright, alright. But know that I’m only doing this because I’m very drunk.” 

“Yay!” Adora cheered. She helped Catra stand up, both of them staggering and almost falling to the ground in the act. The wonders of vodka. They started moving their feet, a little bit shy at first until they found their rythm. Catra surely loved this song, as she quickly was giving herself completely into the music, moving her hips and her head while she sang the chorus. 

“ _Once I ran to you,_ ” Catra said, pointing at Adora. 

Adora followed her lead, singing along with her “ _Now I’ll run from you._ ” 

“ _This tainted love you’ve given!_ ” With every verse they got closer and closer, abstracted in their little singing game. Of course the alcohol was helping Adora, and Catra for the matter, let loose and enjoy the moment in a free spirited way they would never find themselves if they were sober. Catra wouldn’t even be dancing in the first place, or so she claimed. 

As the chorus was reaching its end, Catra took Adora by absolute surprise by taking her hand and making her spin, guiding her until she was suspended below her, as she held her by the waist, their noses centimetres apart. 

_Oh! Tainted Love_ , the music continued while they stared at each other, both equally starled. 

Catra had gotten carried away, Adora knew it by the way she immediately started to blush. She let her go and turned her gaze towards the ground, suddenly not in the mood to dance anymore. Adora was still recovering from the moment, unsure of what to say, or what to do, when Sea Hawk came to save the day. 

He stopped the music, announcing it was time for him to delight them with his beautiful voice. Bow complained a little, saying he was having fun dancing, but he quickly forgot about it and went to sit by the fire, eager to listen to his friend play. Adora knew Glimmer wasn’t a fan of Sea Hawk, but she kept her opinions to herself in order not to hurt Bow’s feelings, as he loved hearing the other boy sing. Adora, on the other hand, was kind of indifferent about it. She thought Sea Hawk sang well enough to entertain them, especially with all the confidence and charisma he radiated. 

For the next forty minutes or so, they all sang together as they shared a bottle of old whiskey Sea Hawk had brought. They were putting on such a show, Adora was afraid they were going to wake Angella and Micah up. She was also surprised about the way Catra was enjoying herself. She had almost never seen her smile and laugh so much, not only during these last two weeks, but also when they were kids. And she couldn’t help but think about how pretty and radiant she looked when she was genuinely happy. 

“Alright friends,” Sea Hawk suddenly said, “I don’t want to kill the mood, I know you’re all enjoying my prodigious voice, but my throat is tarting to get a little sore, and I wouldn’t want to ruin it for the next party, so I guess this is all for tonight. Unless anyone else would like to play for me,” he joked. 

“Oh! Catra, you should play one!” Scorpia said, her eyes glistening as she looked at her. 

“What?! Me?” Catra was shocked by the proposal, taking a hand to her chest and looking back at Scorpia as if she had gone nuts. 

“Sure, why not? You have a beautiful voice. And, you know how to play the guitar,” her friend encouraged her. 

“I... Eh... I don’t know,” Catra went small, staring at the ground. 

“Come on! Just on piece!” Sea Hawk said, “I’ll lend you my baby, she seems eager to get to know you,” he joked, patting his guitar. 

Catra didn’t answer, neither gave Sea Hawk a polite smile, she just stared expresionless at the guitar, as if her mind was preocupied over something else. 

“I mean, it’s altight if you don’t want to... I was just...” the boy said, getting nervous at her silence. 

But Catra interrupted him: “alright, I’ll play one song.” 

“Woooo! That's my wildcat!” Scorpia cheered for her. By the way she was screaming, Adora noticed she was also quite dizzy from the liquor. Sea Hawk handed Catra his guitar with extreme caution, as if it was made of glass and could shatter by any abrupt movement. The girl looked at him kind of annoyed by his attitude, but silently thanked him with a nod once he finally let go of the instrument. 

She slowly slided her hand against the strings, trying to get to know the guitar. Then, she cleared her throat and started playing. It was a slow paced song, and Adora didn’t recognize it at first, until Catra started singing. 

“ _Love to see you shine in the night like the diamond you are,_ ” 

“Oh my god! I love this song!” Bow yelled, Catra ignoring him. That’s why Adora recognized it. It was _Better_ by Khalid, and last summer Bow used to be literally obsessed with it. He would play it around twenty times a day, and quite honestly Adora had started to hate it. But listening to Catra sing it gave it a whole new feeling. Even with Bow’s singing in the background, Catra’s melodic voice flooded the place with its beauty. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on her, completely taken by her performance. She had her eyes closed, however, and was so immersed in the music, it appeared she was playing as if no one could see her instead of in front of an audience. It was very different from Sea Hawk, who played solely for their applause and was always aware of his public’s reaction. 

To say Adora was enjoying herself was an understatement. She was absolutely captivated by Catra, discovering this new side of her. She was also thankful Catra had her eyes closed, as she didn’t have to worry about gazing at her without getting caught. 

“ _You say we’re just friends but I swear when nobody is around,_

_You keep my hand around your neck,_

_we connect, are you feeling it now? Cause I am,_ ” and just as Catra was singing that verse, she opened her eyes for the first time and stared directly into Adora. It was unexpected, and Adora quickly felt as her whole body grew hot. She didn’t dodge her gaze though, but corresponded it, staring back into those mismatched eyes. She perceived a thousand unsaid confessions in them, a hint of fear, and also a hint of something bigger, but she couldn’t quite figure out what. Adora stiffened, suddenly self-aware. She was afraid the rest of the counselors would notice their silent exchange, but looking around they all seemed to be absorbed by the music. 

Catra must have noticed her nervousnees, as she smirked at her while she continued singing. Adora couldn’t think straight, she was undoubtedly feeling so attracted to Catra at that moment, and she didn’t know how to feel about it. Sure, she had fantasized about kissing her friend once in a while when they were little, but she had never acted on it, because it was all, well, a fantasy. And she had noticed how hot she had become over the years, but if hadn’t gone much further than that. But right there, all that she could think about was standing up and erasing that smirk of Catra’s face with a kiss. 

Catra stopped looking at Adora and closed her eyes once more, but she kept on shooting occasional glances at her. Especially during the chorus. 

“ _Nothing feels better than this,_

_Nothing feels better,_

_We don’t gotta hide, this is what you like, I admit._ ” 

When the song was over, everyone bursted into cheers and applauses. Catra was a little surprised by the positive reaction, but she was clearly enjoying the attention, smiling like a little kid. They kept on chatting for a little while about various topics until the fire died, and being almost 3 A.M, they all decided to call it a night. They wished each other goodnight, and when Scorpia approached Catra to hug her before going to bed, Adora noticed she seemed a little bit off. She wasn’t smiling as she usually was, and didn’t pick Catra off the ground enthusiastically but gave her a soft embrace. 

Using the phone lantern to illuminate the path, Catra guided Adora and her back to the cabin. It was the first time they were completely alone during the night, and an awkard silence quickly grew between them. Adora couldn’t stand it, and still being under the effects of that liquor, she couldn’t contain her mouth shut. 

“You were amazing back there,” Adora told her, trying to sound cool about it even though she was a terrible liar and knew Catra would notice she was very flustered and still tipsy. 

“Thanks,” she responded, smiling at her. 

“Since when do you play the guitar?” 

“Oh... Uh, since I moved out of foster care. Lonnie and the guys knew I’ve always wanted a guitar so they bought me one for my eighteenth birthday.” 

“Wow, that’s really sweet,” Adora said, suddenly overwhelmed by the sadness of remembering all the moments she had been absent in her friend’s life. 

“Yeah, it was. I was so shocked when they gave it to me, best gift ever.” 

“Why didn’t you bring it?” 

“Dunno, guessed I wouldn’t have that much time to play and it was also uncomfortable to carry it along all the other baggage.” 

They finally reached the cabin, Catra opening the door. They got in and put on their pajamas without speaking to each other, both equally exhausted. Adora went to turn off the lights while Catra climbed to the upper side of the litter. Once they were both on their beds, Adora wished her friend goodnight and Catra wished her the same in return. A thick, almost palpable silence grew in the room, Adora wishing to tell her thousands of things but not finding the courage to do so. 

“Catra, can I tell you something?” 

The other girl mumbled a ‘hm’ in response. 

“I just wanted to tell you that...” she paused, searching for the right words, “I’ve really missed you.” 

She heard Catra laughing from above, a genuine laughter, and Adora didn’t know how to interpret it. 

“Oh Adora, stop being so sappy,” Catra finally said between giggles. 

Adora couldn’t help but smile, “sorry, I just wanted to let you know that.” 

“Alright princess, seems to me you’ve had a lot of alcohol tonight. Time to go to sleep.” 

Adora nodded in response, but she quickly realized Catra couldn’t see her. She didn’t have any more energy to carry on the conversation, though, and soon her mind started to drift between dreams and reality. She was almost asleep when she heard Catra say something else, her voice so soft it came as a whisper. 

“I’ve missed you too,” she sounded not only heartbroken, but also a little ashamed. Adora felt a kick in her gut upon hearing her, knowing well she was the reason why Catra sounded so devastated about it. She chose not to reply, unsure any words she had to offer would make up for all the pain she had caused. But she went to sleep promising herself she would show Catra things were different now, and that she had no plans of getting away from her life ever again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaa, I really enjoyed writing this one, hope you enjoyed reading it as well :)


	5. The lie

Adora woke up still dazed and with a tiny headache. She got up slowly, still yawning and softly massaging her temple as if that would ease the pain somehow. She picked up the phone and checked the time: 2 P.M. Great, she had thrown away her day off by sleeping. She looked around the room, every curtain was closed so it was very dark, and Catra was nowhere to be seen. She wondered if the curtains were Catra’s doing, to ensure she would be comfortable in her sleep. 

Adora dressed up and then opened every curtain and window, ready to start a new day... or afternoon. There was still something she needed to do, though, and that was have some ibuprofen. Just glancing outside the window was killing her, as the sun was beaming in the sky and everything seemed brighter than usual. It dind’t help that it was extremely hot either, around 95°F degrees. As she got dressed, Adora realized she was already starting to sweat. The heat was suffocating her, making her feel dizzy and without energy. She tied her hair into her usual ponytail, the air running through her nape refreshing her a little. Before going out, she cleaned her face with cold water, in a hopeless attempt to look less like crap. 

She was dying to drink some water, and was starting to get a little bit hungry as well. It was way past breaksfast and lunchtime by then, but the had no doubt Spinnerella and Netossa had saved her something to eat. She entered the dinning room to find it completely empty. If she had to be honest, she preferred it like that. As much as she enjoyed her friends company, she was in no mood to listen to anyone screaming or asking her questions about last night. And as Adora silently thanked being alone, all the memories from last night flushed her mind. The way she had danced with Catra, the way they had laughed and enjoyed themselves, the way she had touched her waist, they way she had stared at her when she was singing... Without realizing it her cheeks had turned vibrant red. 

“Hey, Adora, are you alright? You seem... Uh, hot.” 

Scorpia almost scared Adora to death. She had been so abstracted in her mind she hadn’t realized she had unconsciously walked into the kitchen, and that Scorpia was there, filling a bottle with water. 

“Oh, Scorpia, I didn’t hear you,” Adora said, pulling herself back together. “I’m fine, I am hot though. Came to look for something to eat and some cold water.” 

“I think Spinnerella and Netossa left something for you in the fridge,” Scorpia said, handing her now full bottle to Adora, “here, have some water, you look like you need it.” 

Adora thanked her and took a long sip, enjoying the icy feeling the liquid traced inside her as she drank. She thought how amazing it was that just a little bit of water could make her feel so much better, feeling alredy much more energized than before. She gave the bottle back to Scorpia and rushed to the fridge, where she found a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce and a note that said “For Adora, please do not eat unless you are her :).” Adora smiled, picking up the food and putting it inside the microwave, already savouring it in her mind. God, she loved those women, always taking care of her. 

Scorpia didn’t leave, but stood up there staring at her. It was making Adora feel a little bit awkward, as she rarely spoke with Scorpia. Sure, they said ‘hi’ when they ran into each other and they were polite, there was no reason not to be, but the girl showed no interest in approaching Adora. Truthfully, it seemed like Scorpia was actually almost always avoiding her, as she sometimes hanged out with Bow and Glimmer but then disappeared whenever Adora arrived. She was certain the whole thing had something to do with Catra, as Adora figured Scorpia probably knew about their past. 

So it was strange that Scorpia hand’t already left the other girl alone. Adora glanced at her, she seemed worried about something, frowning and rapidly tapping her fingers against one of the kitchen counters. The silence was killing Adora, but she couldn’t think about anything interesting to say, so she simply blurted out the first thing that came into her mind: 

“Hot day today, isn’t it?” Jeez, she was bad at this. 

“What?” Scorpia murmured, suddenly aware of Adora’s presence again, “right, yes, very hot.” 

Adora forced a smile, growing uncomfortable every second. The girl seemed to have no intentions in carrying on the conversation, so she decided to focus herself on the task at hand and wait for Scorpia to leave or say something, anything. The microwave announced the food was ready and she quickly picked it up. She headed into the dinning room, walking by Scorpia, and was about to tell her goodbye when she interrupted her. 

“Adora, can I ask you something?” she said, visibly concerned. 

“Of course!” Adora answered, louder than she had expected to sound. 

“I-I’m sorry if this seems to come out of nowhere but,” Scorpia nervousness increased as she spoke. She didn’t meet Adora’s eyes, and was scratching the back of her neck, “Catra is always so private about her affairs and I, didn’t want to bother her...” she paused, taking a deep breath. “I just wanted to know if you two were, involved? I saw how she looked at you yesterday, and how happy she seemed... And I guess it just raised some curiosity over what’s going on between you two.” 

“ _Oh_ ,” it was the only thing Adora could phrase. She was utterly surprised by the question. She remembered Scorpia acting a little weird at the end of the party, but she had never imagined it had something to do with Catra and her. Her mind went completely blank, unsure of what to say. Of course, she wasn’t involved with Catra. Nothing had happened between them besides, well, some mild flirting. But for some reason, Adora felt it was wrong to say it aloud, to admit nothing was going on between them. Because, hell, what if Adora wanted something? Scorpia’s interrogation had made her realize she was more in deep than she had initially thought. 

And then Adora thought about the possibility of Scorpia asking because _she_ wanted something with Catra. Adora knew she wasn’t the most perceptive person, but she wasn’t stupid either. It was crystal clear that Scorpia was in love with her friend, or at least had a huge crush on her. Even if Catra had told her she wasn’t interested in Scorpia, the prospect of them getting together made Adora’s stomach clench. 

So she didn’t think about it twice and said, “yes, we actually are involved.” Scorpia’s heartbroken expression made her immediately regret her words, but she couldn’t back down now. “We share a cabin, so, you know, _those_ kind of things are inevitable.” 

“I see,” the other girl said. She seemed to be holding back some tears. Adora thought Scorpia could be the only person in the world to believe her lies, as she knew she sounded unconvinced and sketchy as fuck. “Well, enjoy your meal, see you later,” and before Adora could say something else, she rushed outside the place and left her alone with her thoughts. 

It took Adora less than two minutes to realiz e the stupidity of what she had done. _Why_ on Earth had she done it? What could she possibly achieve by lying like that? Catra was going to be pissed, she had hurt Scorpia’s feelings, everyone at camp was going to think she was a filthy liar. She started to hyperventilate and walk around the room, replaying the whole encounter in her head and punishing herself for being so impulsive and irrational. She couldn’t even touch her food, suddenly feeling sick in the stomach. She quickly realized the best she could do was to find Catra before Scorpia did. If she had to find out about her lies, it was best if Adora told her first hand. She knew her friend would be furious anyways, but she hoped that if she confronted the situation before it got out of hand, Catra would be more lenient to forgive her. 

She rushed outside, leaving the plate on the table and promising herself to clean it up later. Where could Catra be? She approached the lake and found no one there. She walked around the place and it seemed to be desserted. They were all probably napping to charge their batteries for when the campers arrived in the morning. She found Entrapta taking notes and pictures of a beehive, but she had no idea where Catra was. Adora was actually starting to panic, especially by thinking about the chance that Catra could be at Scorpia and Perfuma’s cabin as she usually was. 

She decided to go to their own cabin, in a last attempt to find her there. As she approached the place, she recognized Catra’s figure inside through the open window, lying in Adora’s bed with her cellphone in hand. Adora felt she was finally able to breath, speeding up her pace to reach the door as fast as possible. 

When Catra saw her enter, she stood up and greeted her, almost smiling. But her expression quickly turned into an uneasy one as she caught Adora’s distressed aspect. 

“Catra, I did a terrible thing and I hope you’re able to forgive me,” Adora said, closing the door behind her. 

Catra frowned and crossed her arms, clearly upset by the other girl’s words, “what’s going on?” 

Adora couldn’t meet her friend’s eyes. She stared down to the floor as she began explaining herself, unconsciously gesticulating with both hands and giving small steps around the room. She was speaking so fast, she wasn’t even sure Catra could understand a word of what she was saying. 

“I bumped into Scorpia at the dinning room, and she seemed really worried about something. I tried to make small conversation with her, but she avoided me. Then, out of nowhere she starts asking about you and me, if we are involved or something because of the way we were acting yesterday at the party. And honestly, I have no idea what happened to me, I didn’t think about what I was doing and I told her we’ve been together. And I’m _so_ sorry Catra, I really can’t-” 

Adora had been so absorbed in the explanation, she hadn’t realized Catra had approached her. Her confession was interrupted when Catra grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her into a kiss. It startled Adora at first, who looked at her friend with her eyes wide open but wasn’t able to meet her gaze, as the other girl had her eyes closed. At first there was nothing romantic about it, their mouths clashing against each other ungracefully. But Catra quickly made her way into Adora’s mouth, deepening the kiss and playfully brushing her tongue against hers. 

Adora didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know if it was okay to touch her, she didn’t know if it was okay to encourage the kiss, she didn’t know why Catra was doing this in the first place. Shoulnd’t she have been mad? But she did know that she was enjoying this. She knew she dind’t want her friend to stop. She could have stayed there for hours, just letting Catra kiss her as much as she wanted. It was a bittersweet feeling, not understanding where that reaction had come from but still grateful it had happened. She was, however, kind of disappointed their first kiss had been under these circumstances, as she thought Catra deserved so much better than... whatever that was happening at that moment was. 

It didn’t last much, as Catra quickly let go of her. Finally opening her eyes, she looked as perplexed as Adora, who was now standing completely still simply staring into her eyes. 

“Um...” Adora said, still catching her breath, “what was that?” 

Catra’s eyes were suddenly filled with alarm, as if she had suddenly realized what she had just done. “I’m sorry!” she paused, analyzing what to say, “it’s just that, you panicked, and it made me panic and I didn’t know how to stop you and-” 

Adora interrupted her, “aren’t you mad that I lied to Scorpia about us?” 

“A little bit, yes. But I... Think you should be really apologizing to her, not me.” 

“You’re right.” 

An appehensive silence grew between them, both still recovering from the shock of what had just happened. For the first time in a long time, Adora felt completely speechless. Even in the tense atmospehere, she couldn’t bring herself to say something, anything at all to ease the mood. After a couple of seconds that felt like an eternity, she finally broke the silence. 

“Well, I think I’m going to go find Scorpia and... apologize for everything.” 

Catra simply nodded in response. 

Adora slowly turned backwards and opened the door, but before exiting the cabin she shot one final glance at her friend, who was still fixed in the same spot with a dazzled look. “So, uh, is everything cool between us?” 

Catra nodded again, and although Adora yearned to say something else, she knew it was best to let the situation calm down by its own. 

Leaving her friend behind, Adora headed into Scorpia and Perfuma’s cabin, but after knocking a couple of times it was clear there was no one in there. She went to the dinning room next, but found it empty as well. The spaghetti were still there, and she felt guilty for not eating them because she knew Spinnerella and Netossa had prepared them with lots of love. But she had no appetite at all, especially after her weird encounter with Catra earlier. She put the plate back in the fridge and threw the note that said it was hers to the trash, hoping someone would find it and eat it later. She started to wander around camp, partly looking for Scorpia as she intended and partly because she needed some fresh air. It was also the perfect moment to enjoy the place quiet and tranquil before the kids arrived. She wasn’t sure where she was heading anymore when she crossed paths with Glimmer, who was lying on the grass while reading a book. Upon seeing her friend approach, the girl stood up and greeted her. 

“Hi, Glimmer, have you seen Scorpia?” 

“Yes, she was in the eastern part of the lake with Perfuma. She also seemed really upset about something...” 

“Right, thanks,” but before Adora could go look for Scorpia, Glimmer took her by the arm and looked at her, somewhat concerned. 

“Are you alright? You seem high.” 

“I... uh, I kissed Catra,” Adora knew it wasn’t the best time to give her friend the news, but she also knew Glimmer wouldn’t let her go until she told her what was going on. And she couldn’t lie to her, not because she didn’t want to, but because Glimmer knew her too well to buy any of her bullshit. “Or well, more like Catra kissed me.” 

“ _What?!_ ” Glimmer squealed, giving a tiny jump, “How? When? You need to tell me evetything!” 

“I promise I’ll tell you everything later, but now I really need to find Scorpia.” 

“Is that why she was upset?” 

“No... Seriously, I’ll go visit you and Bow after dinner and explain everything,” and before Glimmer could say anything else, Adora slipped away from her and started heading to the east part of the lake. 

“Adora, wait!” she heard Glimmer screaming from behind, “you can’t leave me like this! What the fuck!” 

She felt bad for leaving her friend hanging, but delaying speaking with Scorpia would only increase her anxiety. After a ten minute walk, she finally spotted Perfuma and her sitting by the lake in the distance. They were speaking about something Adora wasn’t able to hear, but Scorpia’s troubled expression was visible from miles away. 

When the girls saw her approach, they lowered their voices, until Adora was only metres away and they turned to stare at her. 

“Hi Adora, is everything okay?” Perfuma asked, smiling as usual. 

“Yes, thanks for asking,” she answered, returning the smile, “Scorpia can I speak with you for a moment? Alone.” 

The girl looked at Perfuma, silently looking for her approval to leave. Perfuma nodded and stood up, but before going away she gave Scorpia a tiny kiss on the forehead and told her they would meet later. 

Once they were left alone, they stared at each other awkwardly for a couple of seconds. Scorpia was probably waiting for Adora to speak, but she was silent, trying to find the right words to start her explanation and internally calming herself down. Her whole body itched and sweated from the stress the situation was causing her, but she knew she had to face it. 

“What's the problem, Adora?” Scorpia finally broke the silence. 

“Right, I have to speak now,” Adora said, scratching the back oh her neck. She realized she wasn’t making any sense by the confused look the other girl gave her. “Scorpia, you have no idea of how embarrassed I am to tell you this but,” she paused, taking a deep breath, “I lied to you earlier, Catra and I aren’t really involved.” 

It was the first time Adora saw Scorpia angry, and it terrified her. She looked beyond mad, but somehow she was still speaking in a calm voice. “Why did you do that?” 

“I’ve been asking myself the same question, honestly. I don’t know what came of me... I guess a part of me was just jealous about you. I know you like her, It’s obvious, and you live together, and Catra’s always speaking about you and- I don’t know, it was stupid. I’m sorry, I really am.” 

Scorpia didn’t answer, she didn’t even look at her. She was stading still, clenching her fists with her expression distant, thinking about something. 

“I also believe it’s because,” Adora continued, “I do like Catra, and, even if I’m not sure about it, I think she may like me too.” 

“I know,” Scorpia answered, sharply. There was silence again, but this time it wasn’t awkward but rather suffocating. Adora ached to say something but she also didn’t want to tell Scorpia anything that could make the situation even worse, so she waited. She waited for more than five minutes while the other girl simply stared at the ground, her eyes telling Adora everything Scorpia wasn’t verbally expressing. There was a mixture of rage, anguish, frustation, surprise in them. 

Adora couldn’t bare it anymore, she needed to break the silence or she felt she was going to explode. 

“Do you think you can forgive me?” 

Scorpia sighed, finally looking at her. “Yes, I forgive you,” as she said that, Adora felt a wave of relief running through her body, making her limbs stop itching and feeling numb. The pressure that had grown in her chest also eased, letting her breath normally again. “But that doesn’t mean I trust you,” Scorpia continued. “I don’t care about how much Catra likes you, I swear if you ever lie to her I’ll-” she stopped, being unable to finish the sentence. She was too kind for that kind of violence, Adora thought, but she didn’t take her words lightly either. Even if Scorpia was a loving person, she clearly had a soft spot for Catra it was better not to mess around with. 

Adora nodded in response and thanked her. After a short, painful silence, they parted ways. Adora went into her cabin. Catra, to her relief, wasn’t there. She needed some alone time to digest everything that had happened. She checked the time, it was almost 5 P.M. She decided to take a shower before dinner time, hoping the water could wash away all the negative energy she had accumulated during the afternoon. 

Supper was a nightmare. There was a palpable tension at the table, as Adora, Catra and Scorpia were clearly avoiding each other. Bow and Glimmer would occasionally share intent looks, trying to figure out what was going on. If it wasn’t for Sea Hawk, who seemed to be oblivious about the uneasy atmosphere and therefore kept on speaking about random topics the whole time, Adora didn’t know if she could have made it without having a breakdown. 

After dinner, she went to visit her friends as promised. She also noticed Catra had gone to Scorpia’s cabin, and the possible scenarios that could occur there were torturing her. Bow and Glimmer were quick to bombard her with all kind of questions, until they realized she was exhausted and it was best to just let her speak. So Adora told them everything, since her encounter with Scorpia at the dinning room, to the apology near the lake. They listened to her attentively, only interrupting to ask some minor questions. Once Adora was over, they kept quiet for a couple of seconds, unsure of what to tell her. 

“Do you think I’m a terrible person?” Adora asked, suddenly invaded by guilt. 

“Oh, Adora, of course not!” Bow said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You made a tiny mistake, we all do. And you were mature enough to quickly stand up for your actions, that’s what really matters here.” 

Adora gave him a half smile. “It’s just that I- I wanted to show Catra that she can trust me now, that things are different, and I only end up messing things up.” 

“Well, she didn’t seem _that_ mad about it,” Glimmer said, in an almost sarcastic tone. 

Adora chuckled. She had been so worried about Scorpia she had barely stopped to think about the kiss. 

“Trust me, everything is going to be alright. You’ve already done everything you needed to do, now you only need to let things cool down by themselves and stop torturing yourself,” Bow said. 

Adora nodded. “Well, I don’t think things are going to cool down with Catra, not after that kiss.” 

“Did you like it?” Glimmer asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“It was... unexpected. But yes, I did like it,” Adora smiled at the memory of her warm lips against Catra’s. 

“Oh my God!” Bow said, taking both hands to his cheeks, “you’re really catching feeling for her, aren’t you?” 

“I-” Adora stopped to think about it for a second, “I guess I am. If you would have told me this yesterday I would have told you that you were crazy, but after what happened today I can’t deny that I feel _something._ ” 

Both her friends screeched in excitment, holding their hands. Adora rolled her eyes, “calm down. I’m not even sure about how Catra feels about me. And I’m not like, in love or anything, I just think Catra is... really nice.” 

“Really nice?” Glimmer laughed, “who describes their crush like that?” 

They kept on talking about it for a while, until Adora realized it was past 11 P.M. Time really flew when she was with her friends. She hugged them and thanked her for everything, feeling grateful to have such understanding and patient people in her life. 

Adora entered the cabin quietly. The lights were off, and she found Catra was already asleep. She put on her pajamas and brushed her teeth without making any sound, trying not to wake the other girl. Even if she had slept for the majority of the day, Adora felt drained and weak, and she needed to rest as the campers would arrive early in the morning. However, she quickly realized she wasn’t going to be able to get some well deserved rest, as the memories of that day hunted her even in her dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, I'm so sorry for treating Scorpia like this, I promise she'll get a happy ending! Also this won't turn into a love triangle drama, but I had planned for their first kiss to be like this for a while now so


	6. The lake

She wasn’t sure what time it was already. 1 A.M? 2 A.M? 3 A.M? Everytime Adora woke up, she felt the weight of every second passing by, a loud voice in her head reminding her that she had to wake up in a couple of hours. No matter how hard she tried, she always ended up staring at the bed on top of her, listening to Catra’s soft breathing and reviving the events of the last day. She could feel her body burning on the inside, and she wasn’t sure if it was for the hot temperature or because the guilt was eating her alive. She couldn’t get Scorpia’s heartbroken expression out of her mind, reminding her not only of that day’s mistake, but somehow awakening lost memories from past errors as well. It had reminded her of Catra’s gaze when she had told her she was leaving the orphanage four years ago, and about everything that had happened after. About the way she had abandoned her, hurt her, and continued with her life as if nothing had happened. At times it seemed like the shame and regret from that would never leave her, even if she tried to escape. 

She couldn’t bare it anymore, it was clearly useless to try to keep on sleeping when her mind was having none of it. She needed a distraction, before she would start crying and wake up Catra. She picked up the phone, 1:43 A.M. Quickly browsing through her social media, Adora realized it wasn’t going to be enough to shut down her intrusive thoughts. She felt the dense air form the room suffocating her, her body growing hotter every second, and an urge to get out from there invaded her. She knew she shouldn’t be walking around camp during the night, but at that moment she didn’t care about it. All she could think about was getting out of that cabin. 

She quickly stood up and started to get dressed. Even though she tried to be silent, it was soon clear that her efforts not to wake up Catra had failed, as she heard her voice whispering from above: 

“Adora, where are you going?” 

Adora sighed, Catra had always been a light sleeper. Even the tiniest noise would wake her up. “To get some water,” she answered, hoping she was sounding convincing enough. To her relief, Catra didn’t further question her and went back to sleep. 

Flashlight in hand, she rushed outside and let the soft summer breeze embrace her. She was feeling better already, the pressure on her chest decreasing with every waft of fresh air. She started wandering around, enjoying how tranquil the camp was during the night. There was barely any sound besides some crickets singing, and Adora thought that besides how lonely the whole place looked in the dark, it was also when she found it most beautiful. Because she could just sit down there in the grass, and let herself get lost in her thoughts sorrounded by the trees, and the fireflies, and the starry sky. No interruptions, no responsabilities, only the illusion that time had stopped for a little while and she could finally relax. 

She finally reached her desired destination: the lake. Without any light to illuminate it, it seemed like the world ended by its edge and an she was staring at the entrance of an endless hollow instead. It wasn’t blue as it was during the day when the sunlight reached it, but utterly black. She took out her slippers and sanked her feet in the water, the cold sensation sending shivers all over her body. But Adora loved it, she found it extremely refreshing and calming. A thought suddenly crossed her mind, she was well aware getting into the lake at night could get her into trouble, but it was so tempting. She could almost hear the water inviting her, and without giving it much hesitation, she took out her clothes and quietly got into water. She silently thanked her past self for deciding to put on a bra before going out, otherwise she hadn’t been able to do it. She knew where to draw the line, and the possibility of her bosses catching her naked was one them. The water wasn’t freezing, but it wasn’t warm either. However, she knew the faster she got herself wet, the less cold she would feel. She stayed underwater for as much as her breath allowed her, once again enjoying the silence and the darkness that sorrounded her. She felt every part of her body energized by the chilly sensation of the water against her skin. She didn’t remember when was he last time she had felt so at ease, until she got to the surface again, and before she could even open her eyes, a familiar voice took her by surprise. 

“You know, when you said you were going to get some water, I imagined you were speaking about a glass of water, not this” it was Catra. Adora quickly rubbed her eyes to get the water out of them, and the first thing she saw as she opened them was her friend’s figure staring at her with a slight smirk on her face. She was still wearing her pajamas, and her curls were all messy and tangled. 

Adora smiled at her, surprisingly happy to see her even though she had been enjoying her alone time. “What are you doing here?” she asked. 

“You’re an awful liar, I knew you weren’t going to look for some water. And you had already woken me up so I decided it would be fun to follow you. Also, you look creepy as fuck walking around the camp at night like that.” 

Adora chuckled, “well, you’re already here so, care to join me?” She realized she sounded more flirtatious than she had intended, but Catra didn’t seem to be mad about it, as she smiled back at her raising an eyebrow. 

“You know I’m now the swimming type, and I’m not dressed for the ocassion,” she said, pointing to her pajamas. 

“Me neither,” Adora answered, showing off her bra. Catra simply stared at her in response, clearly enjoying Adora’s flirting but trying to play it cool. She then sat down by the lake’s edge, and brushed her tiptoes against the water. 

“Jeez, it’s freezing cold, I don’t know how you can bare it.” 

“Once you get in it’s actually pretty nice, you just need to get accostumed.” 

“Sure,” Catra said, skeptical. A comfortable silence grew between them, Adora still swimming and occasionally getting underwater. Every time she came back to the surface, she feared Catra wouldn’t be there anymore, but she always was, either staring at her or staring at the stars. After a while, Adora got tired of the water and decided it was time to come out. She slowly headed to the border, aware that Catra’s eyes were fixed on her body, and sat down next to her, leaving some space between them so as not to get her friend wet. 

Even with the high temperture, Adora started to feel a little bit cold, her soaked body being completely exposed to the breezes that ocassionaly blew above the place. She covered her legs with her arms, in an attempt to get herself a little bit warmer. 

“Are you cold?” Catra asked. 

“Just a bit, it will be over in a couple of seconds.” 

There it was again, the silence, but that time it was different. Adora couldn’t pretend she was distracted while swimming anymore. They were also closer this time, the tension incresing between them every second. It was clear that both of them yearned to say something, but none were sure about how to start the conversation. They still needed to talk about what had happened earlier, even if they were too embarrassed to do so. Adora knew they’d have to face the issue eventually, and this seemed like the perfect time to do it, with no one around to bother them and taking as much time as they needed. 

“Listen, about this afternoon,” Adora started. 

“Ugh, can we not?” Catra interrupted her, covering her face with both hands. 

“You know we need to talk about it.” 

“There’s nothing to talk about, okay? I panicked. Just as you panicked when you lied to Scorpia about us. It was a heat of the moment thing, it won’t happen again, I promise.” 

Adora couldn’t deny she was disappointed to hear that. Was that really all it had been for Catra? A momentary thing? Something she didn’t want to repeat? Adora wasn’t sure about what she had been expecting for Catra to tell her, but just thinking about that moment made her stomach clench and her body itch and her hands sweat and her head spin, because truth was, she had really enjoyed it. And she hand’t felt it simply as a dumb impulse or something to regret and forget. It had made her feel _something_ , and not just because it was unexpected, but because it carried meaning. Adora sensed it. She wasn’t sure what, maybe it was Catra’s way to tell her that she had missed her, or that she had forgave her, or that she was starting to feel something for her as well. So why was Catra acting as if it had been nothing? Was she really that ashamed of it? Or maybe despite the motivation to kiss her had been driven by a great desire, Catra was simply not reay to deal with it. Either way, Adora knew it was best not to push her. 

“Alright,” Adora answered, and before there could be another awkward silence, she said, “what do you want to talk about, then?” 

Catra thought about it for a second, “I don’t know, you’re the one who’s been living the good life at college. There’s nothing interesting about my life, honestly.” 

“College is overrated, all that stuff about parties and having fun, all lies. You spend most of your time sitting alone in your room drinking coffee and wishing you could have a twenty minute nap but you can’t even do that because you’re always studying or working or at class.” 

Catra laughed, “well, you seem to have made some good friends already.” She was talking about Bow and Glimmer, of course, and there was a certain bitterness in her tone. 

Adora raised an eyebrow, “why do you always sound and look so mad whenever I’m around them? Are you jealous?” She made it sound as a joke so as not to anger Catra, she knew how sensitive she got around these topics. 

Her friend simply stared at her in desbilef, “What? I- “ she apparently regretted whatever she was going to say, as she shut down her mouth and turn her gaze down to the ground. “Maybe,” she finally mumbled. 

Adora couldn’t contain a smile. It was the same old Catra, always possesive of her. She remembered when they were little kids, whenever Adora spent one afternoon paying more attention to Lonnie or Kyle or Rogelio, Catra would throw her a tantrum later. Of course as they grew up she had learnt to manage her jealousy, but being in control of it didn’t change her possesive nature. 

“Well, you are in no place to judge me anyways, after what you did yesterday,” Catra quickly snapped, trying to defend herself. 

Adora gave her a half smile, “fair enough.” 

After a short silence, Adora kept the conversation going: “so, how’s Scorpia dealing with that, anyways? Do you think she hates me?” 

Catra chuckled, “I don’t think Scorpia is legally allowed to hate anyone.” 

“Well, she seemed really mad about it.” 

“She was, but she also appreciated that you were straighfoward with her and that you quickly cleared things up.” 

“It’s good to know.” 

The conversation quickly shifted into something else. They started talking about Adora’s college life, and then about Catra’s adventures living with Lonnie and the boys, and about stupid stuff they did when they were younger, and about everything they hadn’t spoken in the last four years they had been apart. Not even one second felt uncomfortable, Adora actually felt as if she was speaking to the friend she remembered, the one she had left behind, as if they had never distanced from one another. She had forgotten how easy it was to speak with Catra when she wasn’t acting so distant and detached. And between laughters and memories, the girls lost complete track of time until they realized the sky was starting to look lighter and the stars disappeared. 

“Damn, is it really that late?” Catra asked, staring at the first rays of the sun that were barely visible in the horizon. 

“You mean early,” Adora joked. 

Catra smiled, “whatever.” She then realised a long, deep sigh, “today is going to be a looong day.” 

Adora nodded, “we should be getting back, I need to get a shower before the campers arrive.” She picked up her clothes and put it on. She had been so abstracted in her conversation with Catra she had forgotten she was only on her underwear the whole time. They stood up and started walking towards their cabin. Even though Adora knew nobody would be awake until a couple of hours later, she was still extra vigilant. She didn’t want to have to explain why Catra and her were walking around camp on their pajamas at around 5 A.M in the morning. Catra, however, seemed not to care abour it, taking her time to enjoy the morning breeze and the birds chirping. Adora noticed how deep eyebags had appeared on her friend’s face, adding a yet more exhausted aspect to her in company with her messy hair. It suited her, Adora thought, unsure why she would find such a look so attractive. 

“Are you excited about the little ones?” Adora asked the other girl, as this time they would be in charge of the younger group. 

“Actually, I am. I find little kids more enjoyable than angsty pre-teens.” 

“Good, maybe this time you’ll be the favorite conselour instead of me,” Adora teased her. 

“Oh, give me a break, those kids loved me as much as they loved you.” 

“I highly doubt that,” she knew she was getting on Catra’s nerves, but it was so fun to mess up with her she couldn’t contain herself from doing it. 

“Shut up!” Catra said, giving her a soft punch in the shoulder. Adora punched her back, a little bit stronger but measuring her strengh so as not to hurt her. But Catra was having none of it, as her response to Adora’s punch was to literally throw herself onto her. Apparently, she miscalculated the intensity of her action, as she sent both of them into the ground, leaving Adora below her at her mercy. They were both laughing from the sudden collapse, until they realized how close they actually were to each other, and how much their bodies were touching, and they fell into complete silence, still breathing heavily. They stared into each eyes, both startled by how intimate the moment had become. Catra’s hands had landed on Adora’s shoulders, and just the softest movement of them would send Adora tingles down her spine. She wanted to kiss Catra so badly, but the conversatio from earlier made her doubt. Did Catra really want this? Was she just getting the wrong signs? But then again, Catra didn’t seem uncomfortable at the moment. In fact, she never removed her hands from Adora’s body, and Adora saw as her cheeks ware starting to turn a little bit reddish. God, she looked so cute when she flushed, if only she could get a little bit closer and... 

“Um, what are you guys doing?” Adora recognized Mermista’s voice. It came out of no where and it scared her so much, that she rapidly pushed Catra off her as a reflex, sending her to the ground. 

“Ouch,” Catra said as she roughly landed against the grass. Adora jumped off the ground and apologized, helping her to get up. 

“We were just, uh...” Adora tried to look for an excuse, but her mind went completely blank. 

“You know what? I don’t even want to know. You keep doing your thing and I’ll catch you later,” and waving her hand goodbye, she left the two girls alone. They exchanged a look, both digesting what had just happened, and without saying anything else they bursted into laughter. Adora knew the news were quickly going to circulate, Mermista was probably on her way to tell Sea Hawk who would make sure everyone found out about it. She could already imagine Bow and Glimmer’s reaction, suffocating her with questions and squealing with excitment. 

They finally returned to the cabin, the rest of the path in a comfortable silence. They were both smiling like little girls, and that grin didn’t leave Adora’s face for the rest of the day. Of course she felt absolutely drained by the end of the day, after taking care of a buch of little earthquakes without any hours of sleep. They had been assigned the group from nine to eleven years old, and saying they were energetic was an understatement. But whenever she felt the urge to close her eyes and surrender to the need for sleep during that day, she reminded herself of the events of that early morning and thought she wouldn’t change anything about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that by now y'all want to know the full backstory about them, but it's coming guys. Enjoy the fluff now because next chapters are going to be angsty


	7. The flashback

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for descriptions of child abuse in this chapter.

_Four years ago_

It was an average day at the orphanage. Everyone had just arrived from school, the kids were watching TV in the living room, Mrs. Weaver was cooking dinner, Adora was having a breakdown over her marks. She had been breaking her ass to be the top student, as she wanted to apply for as much scholarships as possible. They both knew that once they turned eighteen and got out of that place, no one would help them with any money at all to fund their studies. For that reason, Catra had decided it just wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t the fact that she wasn’t smart enough, she knew that if she really applied herself, her marks could be as good as Adora’s, but she simply couldn’t understand what was the big deal about spending at least four more years of her life surrounded by preps and reading books she actually didn’t care about and piling up a huge debt she wouldn’t be able to repay in her whole life. 

Adora was always questioning her because of her decision, asking her what were her plans for the future. And truthfully, Catra had no idea, but was it really that necessary to have a plan? She was still so young, she couldn’t have figured out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life yet. Of course, she dreamed about travelling the world. Her first goal once she was free was to get a job and start saving money for a trip. Nothing too fancy, but she had barely seen anything besides her neighborhood and ached to see what the rest of the planet had to offer. 

Catra was lying on her bed, playing a game on her phone while her friend was studying on the desk next to her. They were interrupted by Mrs. Weaver who came to announce dinner was almost ready. 

“What are you studying, Adora?” their guardian said as she approached her and put a hand on her shoulder. 

“Math, we have a big test tomorrow,” Adora replied. 

“I see... and what about you Catra? Aren’t you studying? Of course you aren’t, what could I expect from a slacker like you?” 

Catra didn’t answer. She was so accostumed to Mrs. Weaver harsh words, and sometimes slaps and punches as well, they barely got onto her anymore. She had learnt the best way to cope with it was to simply ignore it. 

“She was studying earlier, Mrs. Weaver, she was just having a break,” there it was, Adora’s need to always protect her. Her friend knew she hadn’t been studying at all, but she couldn’t stand when their guardian mistrated her. Deep down, Catra appreaciated Adora’s concern, she knew that if wasn’t for Adora, Mrs. Weaver would be much more cruel with her. She had always admired how Adora had the guts to straight up lie to Mrs. Weaver just to secure her well-being, as they both knew how severe their guardian could act if they got her pissed. But Catra was also getting tired of Adora being so overprotective of her. They weren’t little children anymore, she could defend herself if she wanted to, she simply didn’t have the energy to do so. 

“Alright,” said Mrs. Weaver, “why don’t you use your break and instead of slacking off you go put on the table? You can stay here and study, Adora, I want you to do good on your exams, I know you’ll be able to get as much scholarships as you want. You’re a brilliant girl.” 

“Thanks, Mrs. Weaver, but I think I have studied enough, I’ll go help Catra with the table.” 

“As you wish, my dear,” and they both stood up and went into the dinning room, carefully placing the plates and cutlery for the rest of the kids . They were eleven in total, the younger ones being only ten years old. But the little children were always coming and going, as they were usually placed in foster families quite easily. Adora and her, and Kyle, Rogelio and Lonnie as well, were the real problem. They were sixteen by then, and they knew their chances of getting adopted were almost non-existent. Very few people wanted to adopt teenagers, so their only hope was to wait until they were eighteen to get out of that place. 

While they were at their task, Catra couldn’t contain herself from being a little bit mad at Adora for what had just happened with Mrs. Weaver. 

“You don’t have to do that, you know?” she told her friend. 

“Do what?” Adora asked, clearly puzzled. 

“Defend me, I can take care of myself.” 

Adora sighed, “I know, I’m sorry... I just can’t stand it when she talks to you like that.” 

Catra didn’t answer. Adora made her feel guilty for being angry, she was just trying to help after all. But she couldn’t control her resentment either. She hated being perceived as weak and in need of protection, and the years of her friend always shielding her and acting as her savior were starting to get on her nerves. She quickly forgot about hte incident, though, and the evening continued as calm as it could be with Mrs. Weaver precense in the room. 

The following day when Adora an Catra arrived from school, their guardian surprisingly received them by the doorstep. She was usually inside, cleaning the house or reading a book when they arrived, so as soon as Catra saw her standing there she sensed something was wrong. 

“Adora, dear, I’m so glad you’re finally here. There’s someone inside who wants to meet you,” Mrs. Weaver said, opening the door for them. The girls followed her into the living room, where a woman awaited for them elegantly sitting on the couch. Catra thought she looked weird, almost other-wordly. She was extremely tall, her hair was completely shaved, she was wearing a perfectly ironed and clean white suit, and her eyes sparkled in a disturbing, unnatural way. 

“Hello, Adora,” the woman said. She spoke very slowly and properly, making it sound as if she was a robot. “I’m Light Hope, It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said, standing up and extending her hand to Adora. Her friend took the stranger’s hand in hers. She looked as confused as Catra, trying to figure out what all of this was about. After a tiny handshake with Adora, Light Hope didn’t even glance at Catra who was standing right beside her. She didn’t acknowledge her existance at all, which, of course, made her feel invisible and completely out of place. 

“Catra,” Mrs. Weaver said, sharply, “go to your room now, there are some things Mrs. Light Hope and I need to discuss with Adora.” For a minute, Catra froze. She didn’t want to leave her friend alone in a room with those two women she certainly didn’t trust. She also wanted to understand what the fuck was going on and was reluctant to leave without an answer. Until Mrs. Weaver screamed “now!”, and before she would earn a slap from her guardian, she realized it was best to obey. Adora would tell her everything later, anyways. And as she left the room, Mrs. Weaver closed the door behind her. 

For the next hour, Catra tried to hopelessly distract herself from whatever was happening in the living room. Curiosity was eating her alive, and especially because she had a big suspicion of the situation. What if-? No, the possibility was too painful to even to think about it. Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio asked her if she had any idea of what was going on, and she answered she was as clueless as them. She would try to pretend she was just passing by the living room to try to catch tiny bits of the conversation, but sadly the walls were too thick in that house to hear anything. 

When Adora finally came into their room, Catra almost jumped into her in desperation. She looked startled, yet somewhat happy at the same time. 

“So, who is she? What does she want?” Catra asked, grabbing her by her shoulders with such strength she felt her nails sinking onto her jacket. 

“Her name is Light Hope, as you know. And she...” Adora paused, taking a deep breath, “she wants to adopt me.” 

“ _What?!_ ” Catra snapped, feeling as the world around her had started to shrink and shatter and dissolve into darkness, “are you leaving?” 

“I-I don’t know, I need to think about it... She’s coming back tomorrow and we’re going to keep on talking about it,” Adora’s gaze was distant, she wasn’t meeting Catra’s eyes, and she wasn’t staring at anything specific either. It seemed she was just starting to digest everything. 

“But do you want her to adopt you?” Deep down, Catra knew she should had been happy for her friend, but she couldn’t help but feel as if an invisible force was punching her right in the gut over and over again just by imagining her life without Adora. Without waking up next to her, teasing her when she was trying to do her homework, staying late at night dreaming about their future. So she wished with all her heart, Adora would answer no to her question. 

“I don’t know Catra,” her words brought tears to Catra’s eyes. “No, please don’t cry,” she said softly stroking her cheek and getting the tears out of her face, “listen... It’s just that, she knew my parents, okay? They were highschool friends and she can tell so much about them... And she’s also like, really, really wealthy. She could afford my college tuition, I-” 

“Jesus, would you really leave me for some stupid college tuition?! We’ve been friends our whole life, doesn’t that mean anything to you?” 

“It’s not some stupid college tuition, Catra! I’ve been breaking my ass to secure a better future for myself even if I knew that meant being in debt for literally my whole life and maybe even my children’s life as well. This is a one time opportunity for me, you should be happy! I’m not going to disappear for moving out of this place. We’ll facetime everyday, I’ll come visit whenever I have the chance. Please Catra, this is not easy for me either, but think about me for a second.” 

Catra felt her blood boiling inside of her and burning every inch of her skin, “think about you? Why don’t you think about _me_ for a second? It's not enough that I have to deal with an abusive guardian but now I’ll have to do it alone! Adora, you’re literally my only friend in the world, what am I gonna do without you?” She had never felt so defeated and lonely in her whole life. She couldn’t even believe Adora was actually taking it into consideration, not after everything they had been through. Her whole face was wet with tears of anger by then, looking swallowed and red. 

“I’m so sorry Catra, I don’t want to hurt you, I really don’t, but I can’t let an opportunity like this pass away. I promise you I won’t leave you, things will just be a little different, but we’ll always stay together, no matter what.” 

Catra sighed, Adora’s words comforting her a little. But her anger was consuming her so much, it was blinding her reason. She was being betrayed by the only person she felt she could trust, and there was literally nothing Adora could say to convince her otherwise. “No, you listen. If you decide to go on with is, I never want to see you again in my life,” she said, poking her chest with her index finger. 

Adora gasped, Catra’s words clearly taking her by surprise. For a moment, it seemed as if she was going to break into tears as well, but she ended up forwning as muttering “fine,” as she pushed her friend out of her way and went to sit down on the desk, picking up a Chemistry book. With a knot in her throat, Catra slammed the door and exited the room, hiding herself in the nearest bathroom where she cried until it was dinner time. 

The week that followed her fight with Adora, was one that Catra would always remember. Light Hope kept on coming to visit her friend almost everyday, and everytime Catra saw Adora get out of their talks in the living room with a smile on her face, she felt a tiny piece of heart shatter. It didn’t matter how hard she tried to be happy for her, she simply couldn’t. She couldn’t feel anything else but absolute repulse towards that woman and her plan to steal her best friend, and she couldn’t see Adora as nothing else but a selfish traitor. They weren’t speaking to each other, but Catra didn’t need to speak to her to know that anyday Mrs. Weaver would gather them and announce everyone that Light Hope was taking Adora for foster care. 

And that day finally arrived. It was almost two weeks after their first encounter with Light Hope. Catra couldn’t get the day she had arrived to their lives out of her head, the day her world had been destroyed in the blink of an eye without any kind of warning or hesitation. As Mrs. Weaver informed them, Light Hope lived one hundred and fifty miles away from the orphanage, so Adora wasn’t simply moving away but was also changing schools. Even if Catra felt devastated by the news, she didn’t cry about it. She had cried so much during the last days she felt she didn’t have any tears left to cry. She ached to tell Adora something, anything that would make her stay. But she knew it wouldn’t happen, Adora had already made her decision and she would stick to it, as she always did. 

Her friend had been actively avoiding her. If she was in any pain about the situation, she was clearly trying to hide it, but Catra knew her too well. Adora’s eyes looked less brighter than usual, she was having trouble concentrating when studying, and Catra was starting to forget how her laughter sounded. 

When the day for her to leave finally arrived, Catra felt she was simply having a nightmare. She refused to believe that it was actually real, and therefore refused to tell her goodbye. Adora, however, didn’t allow it. After saying goodbye to all of the kids and Mrs. Weaver, she went to look for Catra who was staring outside the window on their room, which would soon stop being ‘their’ room, but ‘Catra and another orphan’s’ room. As she heard Adora enter the room, Catra didn’t turn to look at her. 

“I’m leaving, Catra,” Adora said, her voice trembling. 

“I know,” she reponded, sharply. 

“Can I- Can I have a goodbye hug?” 

Catra turned to look at her, tears coming down her face for the first time in days. She had known this would be hard, but she hadn’t imagined just how much. She wanted to tell her so much, but she didn’t find her own voice. Her whole body ached, her thoath, her head, her limbs. She simply stared at her for a couple of seconds that felt like an eternity, wondering what to do. Adora apparently interpreted her silence as a ‘no’, because she turned back and headed into the living room, where Light Hope was waiting for her with a smile on her face. 

“Wait!” Catra screamed, following her steps. Adora turned to face her again, with a half smile on her face. Without saying anything, Catra reached for her and embraced her in a warm hug. She wanted to save every part of that moment in her memory, the way Adora smelled, the way her arms felt around her back, the tiny sounds she made when Catra squeezed her with all her strenght, hoping she could transmit her in that hug everything she was unable to verbally express. When they finally broke the hug, Catra saw that her friend was cleaning some tears away from her face. And with none of them having else to say, Adora went outside and got onto Light Hope’s luxurious car. Catra couldn’t help but to keep on staring at her while Light Hope and Mrs. Weaver shaked their hands and spoke about some details about Adora’s adoption, wondering if that was truly the last time she would ever see her friend again. 

Two days after Adora left, Catra finally received a message from her. She had been yearning to send her a text herself, but she had been too scared and too proud to do it. 

_\--Hi Catra, how’s everything going there?_

How was everything going? Seriously? Of course everything was going like shit, and she knew it. Since the first hour after Adora’s departure, Mrs. Weaver had already teased her and provoqued about it. 

“ _Oh Catra, what are you going to do now without Adora here to protect you,?_ ” she had said, taking a hand to her cheek and letting out a malicious laughter. School was also a living Hell. She had no friends there besides Adora, which meant no one to sit at launch with, no one to copy the homework from, no one to distract herself from the boring ass classes. The principal had announced Adora was changing schools, and apparently that was the perfect opportunity for bullies to start targeting her. Adora was kind, everyone knew it, but she was also terrifying when she got mad, and she had gained her reputation for breaking a guy’s nose for bothering Catra back in middle school. The stupid jocks that Catra passed by in the hallway wouldn’t stop making comments about her ass, and it was a matter of time till she exploded and beat the shit out of them. She ended up with a black eye, a bruise on her leg, and two weeks of detention, but it was totally worth it. 

Needless to say, Mrs. Weaver was not pleased with the situation. She made her do extra chores on the house and was constantly watching her, making sure she was studying for her exams and doing her homework. Whenever she found her doing anything else than that she would either yell at her or slap her on the face, regardless of her injured eye which was having a difficult time healing because of it. 

Jesus, hoy dared she asked how everything was going? If Adora truly cared about her, she wouldn’t have left on the first place. She didn’t deserve an anwer, so Catra decided to ignore her. She could imagine her, living in a mansion, sleeping on a ten thousand dollar bed, going to a private school and making new cool, rich friends. Just the idea disgusted her. 

Adora kept on sending her messages, not everyday but almost. With every text she got, Catra felt her anger slowly wearing out. Maybe, maybe, she did care. Why would she bother to send all those messages if she didn’t? Catra was certainly not ready to forgive her, but she couldn’t deny that she missed her terribly. Perhaps at least chatting with her would make her feel a little bit better. Perhaps they could still be friends, after all. 

However as the days went on and on, Catra couldn’t bring herself to answer her messages. She couldn’t really explain why, but everytime she was about to do so a sense of, fear? rejection? hatred? invaded her. It wasn’t until Adora stopped sending her messages that she realized that no matter how angry she was, she really didn’t want to lose her. 

It was in the middle of the night, after having cried for almost an hour trying to get some sleep, when she decided it was time to finally have the guts to respond her. 

_\--Hey Adora, I’m so sorry I’ve been avoiding you_

_\--I guess part of me was still hoping this was all just a bad dream and that one day I would wake up and find you sleeping next to me, but I can’t keep on denying it_

_\--I’m sorry, I really miss you. These days that you haven’t been writing to me I’ve been feeling like shit, I mean, more like shit than I already felt. I hope we can still be friends, even after everything_

She kept on staring at the screen with the sent messages for an hour, hoping that Adora would see them and give her an answer. She couldn’t sleep that night, wondering about what her friend would reply to her and hoping it wasn’t too late to fix the situation. Adora didn’t respond her during the whole day. Catra had started to believe she wasn’t actually going to reply, ever. Until that night, when Catra was ‘helping’ Mrs. Weaver cook dinner, as her guardian was actually staring at her while she did all the work, her phone lighted up and she saw Adora’s name popping on the screen. It was just a second, so she couldn’t read what the message said. She immediately dropped the spoon in her hand and went to pick up the phone, earning a scold from Mrs. Weaver who yelled her to get back to her task. Catra ignored her, but as she was unlocking her phone, it was quickly removed from her hands by the other woman. 

“Hey, give it back!” she yelled, trying to catch it. 

“Keep on cooking, I’ll give it back to you after dinner.” 

“That’s not fair!” 

“Well, it’s also not fair that you leave the rest of the children without dinner just because you get distracted by your phone.” 

Catra contained herself from telling her she was a heartless bitch and grabbed the spoon back, continuing to mix the lentil stew she had been preparing while she fantasized about punching Mrs. Weaver in the face. She tried to finish the meal as fast as possible, the sooner they ate, the sooner she would get her phone back. She was really afraid that her gurdian wouldn’t keep her promise and wouldn’t give her the phone back, but for Catra’s relief, once she was done clearing up the table, she did. 

She quickly unlocked it and opened Adora’s chat. 

_\--No, Catra, I think you were right. Maybe it’s the best we just let us go and continue with our lives. I’m sorry as well, I never wanted this to happen but I think it’s for the best_

_\--Goodbye, I hope life treats you kindly and that one day you get to see the world_

What? Was she serious? At first Catra thought she was just joking, but when she tried to reply to her, she realized Adora had blocked her. Blocked her. She tried to call her but it sent her directly to the voice mail. She bursted into tears, rushing into her room where she picked up a pillow and put it on her face as she screamed as loud as her voice allowed her. Why had Adora done that? Why the sudden change of heart? She was literally able to do nothing to begin to comprehend the answers to those questions, only Adora knew them and she made it clear she didn’t want anything to do with her. God, she hated herself for being so stupid, for believing Adora actually cared for her after what she had done. 

There were some pictures of them sticked around the wall, photographs they had been collecting over the years they had spent together. Catra stared at them and felt her stomach sink and her blood rising. Where had all that love gone? She couldn’t tolerate it, seeing them so happy together, even if it was just a piece of paper. It was as if the images were mocking her, laughing in her face for believing their friendship would last forever and that nothing would ever break them apart. So she picked them up, evey single one of them, and one by one she tared them down to pieces, erasing any trail of the happy past Adora and her had once shared together.


	8. The secret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longest chapter so far! Hope you enjoy :)

First week with the small campers was over. Even though they were much more demanding and exhausting than the bigger ones, at least they stayed for only a week, meaning Adora and Catra could enjoy their Sunday. Catra had surprised Adora with the little ones, she was much more patient and affective with them than with the older campers. She seemed to enjoy their naive and energetic nature more, and the fact that they weren’t constantly on their phones or speaking about their crushes. Instead, they were always up for playing and having fun, so it brought to life Catra’s goofy and lighthearted side Adora remembered about her. She would play pretend with them, as if she was a monster about to attack them, and she would read them bedtime stories whenever they felt homesick. 

Adora had started to wonder if the kids were helping to break the armour Catra had built for herself, as she was also much more cheerful with Adora as well. Catra barely evaded her anymore, and was much more verbal and enthusiastic than during the first two weeks. She would also randomly touch her, her shoulder, her back, her hair, whenever she had an excuse to do it. Catra had always enjoyed physical contact, at least when they were teenagers, so Adora wasn’t really sure if her friend was simply comfortable enough around her to show all that affection or if they were actually signs of flirtation. She wasn’t sure where their relationship was heading, it was painfully clear that they were both feeling some kind of attraction by then, but Adora wasn’t sure up to what extent Catra was willing to take it. It was probably just something physical, Adora thought, she had caught Catra staring at her biceps and her legs plenty of times by then, but she seemed reluctant to adress the kiss situation or the incident of that morning coming back from the lake. Adora tried not to overthink about it and just let things work out on their own. They were job partners, after all, getting involved was probably not the best of ideas. 

She woke up at 11 A.M that Sunday, being able to sleep in for a little while without having to worry about any responsabilities. She thought about how Bow, Glimmer, Entrapta and Scorpia were probably dealing with the teen’s at the moment and thought she didn’t envy them at all. Adora was usually a very active person, so she was surprised by the amount of hours she was sleeping there at camp. She almost never woke up after 9 A.M, but the children had actually worn her out. 

Yawning and stretching, she got up and searched around the room for her friend, but quickly realized she was no where to be seen. Squinting because of the light that came thorugh the window, she saw there was a tiny note stuck on the door. 

_went out for a walk, see you at lunch sleepyhead_

Instead of a signature, the note had a drawing of Catra sticking out her tongue. Adora giggled and sighed at how cute the whole thing was. She got dressed and ate an apple she had on her sleeping bed in case she got hungry during the night. It was almost lunch time, so it didn’t make much sense to go to the dinning room and try to get some breakfast. 

She went out of the cabin, wondering about what she could do. She saw Glimmer and Bow playing handball with the older campers in the distance, but apart from them, there seemed to be nobody around. She started strolling around, simply enjoying the warm feeling of the sunlight against her skin. Eventually, she bumped into Sea Hawk and Mermista, who seemed to be literally always together. They were lying on the grass, his head on her stomach, as she gently brushed his hair with her hands. 

“Hi Adora! Care to join us?” Sea Hawk said as he saw her approach. Adora was happy to sit down by their side. She had barely had any time to hang out with them since the summer season had started, and she found herself missing their company. She sat next to Mermista, taking off her trainers and letting the grass tingle against her bare feet. 

“Hi guys,” she said with a smile, “how’s everything going?” 

“Ugh, finally a little rest,” Mermista said rolling her eyes, “I thought the little children were going to be the end of me.” 

Adora laguhed, she knew what her friend was talking about. 

“Where’s that girlfriend of yours?” Sea Hawk said, staring at Adora as he raised his eyebrow. 

“What? Are you talking about Catra?” 

“Oh, come on! Don’t play pretend, we know you are secretly dating, we’ve seen the way act around each other,” Mermista said. 

“I’m even writing love songs about you!” Sea Hawk said, his eyes glistening. 

Adora bursted into laughter, as funny as she found the situation it really made her wonder if Catra and her were that obvious about it. “Jeez guys, are you serious? I swear we aren’t dating.” 

“Well, you are two useless lesbians then, you can feel the tension from miles away,” Mermista said. 

When Adora was done laughing, she went silent, unsure of what to respond. Maybe Mermista was right, Adora also sensed the whole mood changing whenever Catra was around, but she thought she was the only one perceiving it because of the stupid crush or whatever she was developing. She stopped to think how about maybe they weren’t as good as hiding their feelings as they thought. But then again, she was fairly sure the whole thing was just something physical and nothing more. It was just the shock of not seeing each other for a long time only to realiz e that their kind of cute friend when they were little had turned into a breath-taking, strong woman, right? Well, at least that was how Adora saw it. Nothing to worry about, it would probably be over in a couple of days. 

The conversation drifted into something else, and they ended up sharing anecdotes about the kids from the last three weeks. Soon enough it was lunch time, and the three conselours made their way to the dinning room, silently comlpaining about having to stand up as they were really comfortable and enjoying themselves. 

Catra was late for lunch time. At first it didn’t surprise Adora as she knew her friend wasn’t the most punctual person in the world, but as soon as she arrived, Adora sensed there was something wrong with her. She looked worried, dodging everyone’s gaze and being more silent than usual. She sat down without saying hi or apologizing for being late, staring directly onto her plate completely detached from what was going on around her. She barely touched her food, and before they were done with their meals, she excused herself and stood up to leave. Adora, who was sitting beside her, had noticed she had secretely cut a tiny piece of her steak and had wrapped it inside a napkin that she then put inside her pocket. What the hell was she up to? Before she could leave, Adora grabbed her by the hand and asked her if everything was okay, to what her only responde was to nod and to rush outside the place. 

Jeez, there was clearly something fishy going on. She knew Catra didn’t like her personal space being invaded, but curiosity was killing her and she was also concerned about her. Her mind wouldn’t let her rest, so she decided to excuse herself as well and follow Catra’s steps. As she got outside of the dinning room, she saw Catra heading, almost running, towards their cabin direction. She followed her from behind, making sure she didn’t notice her as she would probably just get angry. Adora saw her enter the cabin and waited for about five minutes before going in herself, so that she wouldn’t think she had been pursuing her. 

As soon as she opened the door, she heard Catra’s voice speaking to her: “I knew you would follow me.” 

Adora froze, trying to figure out how she had found out. 

“I saw you following me,” Catra said, “you’re really bad at being stealthy, you know?” 

Adora rolled her eyes, “alright, who cares? Are you going to tell why you look like you’ve seen a ghost or what?” 

Catra sighed, closing her eyes and massaging her temples. “alright,” she said, opening her eyes and looking at her dead serious, “but you have to promise me that you won’t freak out.” 

“Come on, Catra, you’re the one that’s freaking me out,” Adora told her, crossing her arms. 

“Fine, you’ll see,” and leaning down on the floor, Catra took out of her pocket the napkin with the meat. She placed it on the floor and unwrapped it, shooting glances to the bed that was in front of her. Adora got on her knees as well, trying to understand what her friend was doing, but nothing was happening. 

“Catra, what the-?” 

“ _Shhhhhh!_ ” she covered Adora’s mouth with her hand. And as she did that, Adora finally saw it. It was a kitten, slowly revealing itself from under the bed. It was brown and hairy, with some black spots here and there and black ears. It looked extremely scared, crawling towards the meat but also mainting its distance from Adora and Catra. Once it reached the napkin, it started eating the tiny steak pieces earnestly, as it realeased soft growls and purrs. 

“Oh my god,” Adora whispered with excitment, “it’s so cute!” She couldn’t take her eyes off it, her only desire to caress it but not wanting to scare it either. 

“I know, right?” Catra said, looking at her, “I found it this morning crying in a bush and I couldn’t leave it there.” 

“It’s a shame we can’t keep it,” Adora said, kwowing how the rules were. Occasionally feral cats and stray dogs would show up at camp, but they weren’t allow to keep them because of security reasons. They could hurt the campers, so they had orders to report any wild animals so that they could be taken to a shelter. 

“We can if nobody finds out,” Catra said with a half smile, raising an eyebrow. 

“What? No, Catra, you know the rules.” 

“Who cares about the rules?” 

“Come on, we could get fired. We can’t take that risk.” 

“Don’t you think the risk is worth it,” she said as she approached the kitten and gently grabbed it, “for this little baby?” she took the cat right next to her face and stared at Adora in the cutest way possible as she pouted. 

Adora couldn’t contain a smile, “no,” she said, looking away as she knew that if she stared long enough Catra might be able to convince her. 

“Please Adora! At least let’s keep it for a week or so, it’s just that it’s so cute. If we’re careful enough nobody will find out about it.” She turned to face the kitten, their faces almost bumping. As if it could understand what was going on, the cat procceded to gently start licking Catra’s nose, making her gasp and squeal with excitement, “that’s it, I’m in love with you,” she said to the feline, “Adora, there’s nothing you can do to separate us now.” 

Adora bursted into laughter. If it hadn’t been about Catra, she wouldn’t have probably give in, but she felt like she couldn’t disappoint her, not again, not ever. She also looked so excited about it, more excited than Adora had seen her in a very long time. Damn it, she was simply weak for her, she couldn’t deny it. She would have done anything to keep her smiling like she was at that moment. 

She sighed, rolling her eyes and knowing she would probably regret it, “alright, we can keep it for a couple of days. But then we have to tell Angella and Micah about it, don’t get too atached.” 

Catra screeched with gratitude, and got closer to Adora as she repetedly said “thank you, thank you, thank you!” then, she leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek, and before Adora could react to it she got up, kitten in hand, and went into the bathroom. Adora felt her temperature rise and found it harder to breath after that kiss. How could something so simple could have such a powerful effect on her? She stayed there frozen for a couple of seconds, her mind lost in thoughts about what had just happened. She really shouldn’t be making such a big deal about it. It was just a stupid crush after all, just something physical, it had already happened to her a dozen times back in college. It wasn’t like she actually enjoyed spending time with Catra and had laughed more in these last past days than she had done in a really long time and felt she had gotten back the only person in the world who she found extremely easy to talk to for hours and that she thought about her all the time, about her eyes, her freckles, her scent, the way she laguhed, the way she touched her, about had much she had missed her... Fuck. 

The first day taking care of the cat was a total success. The had just stolen a little piece of food from their lunch and dinner for the baby and were sure nobody suspected a thing. Adora didn’t remember when was the last time she had seen Catra so enthusiastic about something in her whole life. It had also been the first day with the new group of little campers, this time the would be in charge of the smallest kids, from six to eight years old. They were a little bit calmer than the children from nine to eleven, but still required a lot of work. Adora was starting to miss the older campers, who she could leave for an hour unsupervised and knew they would still be alive when she returned. 

It was almost midnight, and Adora had gone to look for some water at the dinning room, for real this time. Of course Catra had woken up again at the sound of her leaving, but she had probably noticed she wasn’t lying this time as there were no signs of her around. Adora was finishing to fill up her bottle when she heard someone coming in. She didn’t have to wait for the person to enter the room to see who it was, as she recognized the sound they made when as they walked. 

“Hey, Adora,” Glimmer said as she entered the kitchen. She was wearing a pink pajama with lots of glitter, not really Adora’s style but she still thought it was cute, and it suited her friend. 

“You hungry?” Adora asked her as she saw her friend opening up the fridge and looking for something inside. 

“Yep, I’m actually curious to see if there are any pastries from today’s breakfast left,” and about two seconds later she was taking out a pastry that had been buried in the last drawer. She gave it a bite and sighed out of pleasure, clearly pleased with having found what she was looking for. 

“You want half?” Glimmer asked once she was done swallowing. 

“You know I never say no to Spinnerella and Netossa’s pastries.” 

As they ate, a comfortable silence grew between them. Once they were both finished, Adora thought it was time to wish good night to her friend and go back to her cabin, but Glimmer apparently had another thing in mind. 

“I know about you and Catra’s secret, Adora,” she suddenly said, smirking at her. 

Adora almost choked. How the Hell had she found out about the cat? Had she seen them? Had somebody told her? Who else knew about this? She felt her pressure rising, her intrusive thoughts already starting to punish her for being so careless. She was about to explain herself to Glimmer but she continued speaking instead. 

“You two? Dating in secret? I mean, not that I’m surprised about it, I’m just surprised you haven’t told me and Bow about it,” she crossed her arms and leaned herself against the wall, knowing the chat was going to take a long time. 

Adora felt she was able to breath again upon hearing those words. She didn’t know about the kitten, _phew_. But once the starting relief was over, it was followed by utter confusion. What the Hell was her friend talking about? Glimmer must have noticed Adora’s perplexed look as she continued her speech without letting her speak, again. 

“Oh, don’t play innocent with me, Mermista told me everything.” 

So this was what it was all about, a huge misunderstanding. Adora couldn’t contain herself as she burst into laughter, leaving her friend looking confused this time. She was actually laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her face. 

“Glimmer, do you really believe that I would keep such a secret from you? Why would I?” 

“But Mermista told me she found you two kissing last week! Why haven’t you told us about it?” 

“Mermista didn’t found us kissing, she found us in a... compromising position, I’ll admit. But we weren’t kissing, and we certainly aren’t dating.” 

“Why would Mermista lie, then?” Glimmer was starting to raise her voice, the whole situation visibly upsetting her. 

“Well, I don’t think she wanted to lie. I mean, we were pretty close, maybe she _thought_ she saw us kissing when we actually weren’t. And she’s Mermista after all, you know how she gets carried away with making every story sound more dramatic than it actually is.” 

Glimmer frowned, she knew her friend was telling the truth. “Well what happened then? Why were you and Catra so close in the first place?” 

“Catra jumped over me, and we tripped, and she ended up on top of me and our faces were really really close, if Mermista has poor eyesight she could have probably thought we were kissing.” 

“Why didn’t you tell us about this?” 

“Because I felt it wasn’t neccesary? It was just a stupid incident, nothing has happened since, I swear.” 

Glimmer kept quiet for a couple of seconds, analyzing Adora’s story. She didn’t seem to be convinced about it, but she knew her friend too well to know when she was lying. “Alright,” she finally said, “I know you’re telling the truth, but from now on no more secrets. Honestly, you have no idea how much Bow and I have been eating our minds about this.” 

Adora’s smile erased from her face. No more secrets. God, if somebody found out about the cat and told Glimmer she would be beyond pissed that Adora would risk her job like that, for a stupid whim. She nodded at her friend, hoping she was disguising her nervousness well enough. Glimmer didn’t seem to perceive it as she approached her and gave her a goodnight hug before leaving Adora alone. 

Taking some sips from her bottle, Adora’s mind kept on spinning around the issue. She knew that there was no stop to her anxiety then, any little change in someone’s tone would make her paranoid about the kitten, her fear of disappointing Glimmer increasing with every possible horrible scenario she imagined. She didn’t want to let Catra down either, but she knew it was the right thing to do. Her only hope was that Catra would understand it, as Adora knew she had a tendency to let her emotions blurry her reason. 

Walking back to the cabin, she thought about how to confront Catra about it. When would it be a good time? Before breakfast? No, then they would spend the whole day arguing about it. Before dinner? No, her anxiety wouldn’t let her carry on with that day’s activities knowing that anyone could find out about their secret any minute. It would have to be that night, so that they had time to talk about it. It wasn’t that late, anyways, and Catra, unlike her, never seemed to really need eight hours of sleep to be well rested. 

She opened the cabin door trying to make the slightest sound possible, even though she planned to wake up Catra anyways. The only sound in the room was Catra’s heavy breathing, which stopped as soon as Adora locked the door behind her. Good, it meant she had already woken her up. Adora turned on the light on top of her night stand, which was much softer than the light on the ceiling, so that she could innitiate her talk with Catra. 

“Adora? What are you doing?” Catra muffled, slowly sitting on her bed and adjusting her eyes to the light. Adora saw the kitten curled up next to her, purring and letting out an almost inaudible _meow_ as Catra moved. 

“We need to talk,” she answered, trying not to sound that rough. 

“Did something happen?” 

“Not really... It’s just that,” she took a deep breath, knowing Catra wasn’t going to like this at all and preparing herself for her reaction, “we need to tell Angella and Micah about the kitten.” 

“What?” she frowned, her expression indignant. “Why do you bring it up now? What time is it anyways? Can’t we discuss it in the morning?” 

“No, Catra, listen. I ran into Glimmer at the dinning room, I didn’t tell her a thing but for a moment I thought she knew about it and I swear to you my heart almost stopped beating. I can’t live with this burden, please.” 

Catra just stared at her for a moment, her bitter expression unchanged, “you’re being so dramatic. They’re not going to fire us over a feral cat.” 

“You don’t know that, I’m not willing to take that risk.” 

“Come on! You’re bosses’ daughter best friend, they wouldn’t dare.” 

“Yes, they would. I know them better than you do, they’re nice but they’re also really severe if they need to be. Catra, stop being so immature, they will find it a shelter. In no time it’ll be adopted by a nice family. I also like having it here but we just can’t.” 

“You don’t know that. What if they take it to one of those shelters where they have them in little cages the whole day? What if it never gets adopted?!” Catra’s voice was getting louder every second, her face turning red as well. “We can’t just abandon it Adora!” a tear went down her face as she went silent again, patting the animal beside her. 

Adora just stood there quite shaken for a minute. She had expected Catra to resist but she didn’t know the issue would affect her friend that much. She climbed up to the upper bed, sitting next to her friend who had her eyes fixed on the kitten. 

“Okay Catra, what’s this really about?” Adora asked her, hoping her tone was calming enough. 

Catra took a deep breath and cleaned the tears of her face. “I always wanted to adopt a feral cat, you know? With the guys it was impossible because Rogelio hated them, and Scorpia loves them but she’s allergic. I don’t know, I guess they kind of remind me of myself, all alone in the world, abandoned by everyone, just surviving and hoping one day someone will find them and give them the love they deserve.” 

Adora kept on staring at her, invaded by sadness and guilt. She knew Catra was partly speaking about her when she said ‘abandoned by everyone’, but she was also kind of pleased that her friend was trusting her, showing her vulnerable side again since they were younger. 

“Catra, it will get the love it deserves. I know Angella and Micah will make sure of it,” she tried to comfort her, but Catra didn’t seem relieved at all. 

“What happened to you, Adora? I mean, what happened to you four years ago? Why did you erase me from your life like that?” Catra was looking at her then, her gaze a mixture of melancholy and rage. It scared Adora. She had imagined this conversation with Catra a thousand times in her mind during the last past years, but she never thought they would actually have it. The memories came back to her like a tsunami, flooding her in shame and resentment. Her stomach suddenly pinched her sharply, and she took a couple of seconds to get control over her respiration before starting to speak, as she felt she could barely breath. 

“Okay,” Adora paused, thinking about how to start her explanation, “you should know that I'd been aching to tell you this since the moment I saw you three weeks ago, I just... didn’t know where to start.” 

“I’m listening,” Catra said, impenetrable. 

“Okay,” Adora said again, more to calm herself down than for anything else. “Truth is, I was insanely mad at you after leaving the orphanage. I didn’t understand why you were being so mean to me, why you couldn’t understand why being adopted was so important to me. I thought that if you truly cared about me, you would have been happy for me. But I kept on texting you anyways, despite all my anger, because I did really cared about you, more than anything honestly, and when you ignored all those messages, my head took it as the only confirmation I needed for the fact that you hated me.” 

“I was trying to cope through everything as well, Adora, _excuse me_ for being angry at you for abandoning me with Mrs. Weaver and not answering your texts for a couple of days,” she said, ironically, “but I did reply in the end, because I realized that I didn’t want to lose you, but you clearly didn’t think the same about me,” her tone bitter over the last sentence. 

Adora sighed. “Listen I’m not proud about the way I reacted, I’ve been biting myself up for that over the last three years, but at the moment, it was simply the way I found to cope with it. Light Hope was the only person I was spending time with and she had this philosophy of ‘letting go’. I told her eveything about us, how you ignored my messages, and she convinced me that you didn’t care about me, and that it was best to forget about everything. Looking back on it I realize how stupid it sounds, but I think it was her way of coping with things too. She was a widow, she had been married to a woman named Mara who died on a car accident one year before my adoption. It was clear that she wasn’t over it, and that she thought denying her emotions was the best way to move on. There wasn’t a single photo of Mara in the house, and she always avoided speaking about her. I guess I let myself get carried away by her methods.” 

Adora had been so absracted in her explanation she hand’t realiz e Catra had started to cry. She was staring at her completely heartbroken, unable to speak until Adora asked her if she was okay. 

Catra nodded. “It’s just that... I don’t know, I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long, to really understand what happened.” 

“I’m so sorry Catra,” Adora said, tears threatening her as well. She approached her friend in an attempt to embrace her or take her hand, to comfort her somehow, but Catra stood still, avoiding her contact. 

“If you regreted it why didn’t you write to me? Why did you left me living why the doubt all these years?” 

“I- I was scared. I thought you hated me.” 

“Hate you?” Catra said, snorting, “Adora I _loved you_ , my whole life, you were literally the only person I cared about. When you left me, I felt my whole world being thrown into the trash. I was detroyed. And worst part is, all these years, I did try to convince myself that you’re a cold-hearted bitch who betrayed me but I just... couldn’t. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t hate you. I think I could never hate you. And when I saw you again, I swear I almost drop dead right there. All these feelings, all these memories about you... I was fucking pissed, really, I think I could have punched you in the face if people weren’t there. But at the same time I felt so... relieved somehow. I guess a part of me had always been missing you, and hoping to see you again.” 

Adora was definetly crying then, moved by Catra’s words. Hearing her say that she never hated her, after years of convincing herself that Catra detested her, was getting off a heavy burden of her chest. She cleaned her tears and took a deep breath before answering, not being able to contain a smile. 

“I hope you can forgive me, Catra. I know I don’t deserve it, all that pain I put you through because I was scared to face my feelings... But things are different now, I work, I earn my money, I can come to visit you whenever I want. I understand if you would rather not see me again once summer is over but if you do, I promise you I will never, _ever_ , betray your trust again. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you these years, I will not make the same mistake again.” 

Catra simply nodded, not finding the words to answer. She freed herself from the blankets and crawled towards Adora. She stared at her for a while, her eyes wattery and her face swollen, and without saying a word, she threw herself into her arms and embraced her, bursting into tears once more. It was the only answer Adora needed, holding her tightly and brushing her hair with her fingers, as Catra continued sobbing and getting their pajamas wet with tears. Adora lost track of time there, feeling Catra’s weight against her and making everything that was at her reach to try to comfrot her friend. She couldn’t quite explain it, but every second they spent like that she felt all Catra’s wrath and anguish slowly vanishing into the air. 

Once Catra was done crying, she broke the embrace, turning to look at Adora with a half smile, “thank you,” she said, her voice cracking. 

“No, thank you Catra, for trusting me.” 

Catra nodded, her face looking much better. She was starting to recover her usual smug and confident expression, “you better not let me down this time, princess.” 

“I would never,” Adora said, half joking. They both released a faint laughter followed by a comfortable silence. 

“God, that was so fucking embarrasing,” Catra finally said, covering her face with both hands. 

Adora smiled at her, “don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone that behind that taugh exterior you actually are a really sensitive and soft person,” she teased. 

“Shut up,” Catra told her, frowning. 

Adora giggled. “It’s late anyways, we should get some sleep.” 

“What about the cat?” Catra said. The whole episode had made Adora completely forget about the kitten, which was the problem in the first place. She sighed, staring at it, she couldn’t deny it looked extremly cute wrapped around Catra as if she was the most comfortable pillow in the world. 

“I think we’ll deal with it in the morning,” and that being said, she went down the stairs of the litter. Before turning off the light, she wished her friend goodnight, and wrapping herself around the soft blankets, she slept better than she had ever slept during these last years, her intrusive thoughts finally leaving her alone for the night.


	9. The storm

The following morning before breakfast, they told Angella and Micah about the kitten, of course pretending that they had just found it and not two days ago. They immediately started to look for a new home for it, and in a matter of minutes they had already found it one. A couple of hours later, Micah’s sister, Castaspella, arrived at camp to come look for the little one, as she announced herself to be ‘its new mother’. Adora knew Catra was raging jealous about it, shooting daggers at Castaspella as the kitten purred while she embraced it. At least it would be in good hands, Adora thought. Castaspella stayed for a while, chatting with her brother and her sister in law. Entrapta also covered Glimmer for a while so that she could spend some time with her aunt that she barely had time to see while she was away at college. Once Castaspella decided it was time to go, they patted the cat goodbye, Adora noticing how Catra was resisiting her urge to cry because she didn’t want to look weak in front of everyone. 

If things had been doing good with Catra before that night, they started to do great the next couple of days. Their midnight talk had really helped them become closer. Even if they had been friendly and kind of flirty before, there was always a certain tension, a sense of something incomplete, an urge to fully close the chapter of their lives that had been open all these years. And now that they had finally worked things out, they could enjoy each other’s company without that weight on their shoulders. Adora grew comfortable around Catra. She didn’t catch herself doubting about what to tell her or what to do in order not to annoy her anymore. They had also, inevitably, started to tease and touch each other more and more often, mostly because they felt they had enough trust in each other to do it. 

Three days had passed since that night and the girls were having breakfast, preparing themselves to face another day with the little ones. Lucky for them, the group was actually really calm. Almost none of the kids were troublemakes, and they were really affectionate and obedient. Adora had initially thought that as they were younger, the would bring them more trouble than the group from nine to eleven years old, but she was pleased to find out it was the opposite. Plus, they also had nap time with them, which gave them at least a little while in the afternoon to rest. Catra loved them, it was definetely her favorite group. Adora was actually really surprised about her friend’s transfomartion from the teens to the kids, as she would let the little ones climb over her, hug her, kiss her, play with her hair. She didn’t let the older kids do any of that stuff. It wasn’t that Catra always anjoyed the attention though, Adora noticed she sometimes grew uncomfortable with all the touching, but she suspected she was simply too weak to tell the children to stop, because she didn’t want to hurt their feelings. Of course, the younger the kids were the more difficult they had it to understand that not wanting to be touched was not the same as ‘I hate you and you’re being annoying’. 

It was a very nice day, it wasn’t extremely hot, but the sun was beaming and there was no wind. They had planned to have the campers do a painting session for the morning, and they decided to do it outside to enjoy the nice weather. The kids were spreaded over the grass, waiting for Adora and Catra who were handing out sheets of paper and paintbrushes. Of course the camp had a big stock of all kinds of artistic materials at disposal. Adora and Catra let the kids be as they sat next to each other and stared at them, speaking about how cute and excited they looked with the activity. 

After about fifteen minutes, one of the little girls came to show them her masterpiece. She had drawn herself in the middle of Adora and Catra, each holding a hand with a big smile on their faces. She told them she wanted them to keep it and went to sit back with her friends, starting a new work of art. Adora looked at the picture, not being able to contain a smile. 

“Isn’t this cute? It’s like those drawings they make you do of your family when you’re little,” Adora snorted. 

“I think it’s kinda creepy, what if she think we’re her new moms now?” Catra said, although she was smiling as well. 

“Come on, kids aren’t that stupid.” 

“You never know,” Catra told her, half joking. “So, which one of us is going to keep it?” 

Adora thought about it for a second, undecided. It was a gift for both of them, but there was no way they could both take them to their respective homes. “We’ll think about it later, but for the moment I think it will look nice in one of the cabin’s walls.” 

Catra nodded. The morning went by as the campers kept on painting. When they got tired of it, Catra went to look for a book and gathered them in a round. They took turns for reading the story, Catra later mocking Adora for all the voice changes she made to interpret the different characters. Before they knew it, it was lunch time, and they realized they hadn’t cleaned up the mess from earlier , sheets of paper and paint jars all over the place. They decided to take care of it after lunch, during the camper’s nap time. Most of them almost fainted after having something to eat, as they woke up before 8 A.M and were usually exhausted by the afternoon. They slept for about an hour, and then they continued with the rest of the activities. 

They asked Entrapta if she could put an eye on the children while they went to tidy up the place, and she said there was no problem but that. “if any lil demon wakes up and starts crying, I’ll go look for you immediately as I have no idea of how to calm down a crying child.” 

Leaving the kids in good hands, they went to complete their task. Some of the kids had left their drawings there, forgetting them as they rushed to have the awaited lunch. They carefully picked them up, so that they could return them to their owners later. They knew most of them were eventually going to throw them away, anyways, but they still wanted to have them in case they had drawn something to their parents or they wanted a memory to hang on their walls. 

Adora found an artwork that caught her attention, it was a very well-done portrait of Catra. She was smiling, and there were several hearts drawn around her. 

“Looks like some kid got a crush on you,” Adora showed her the painting, giggling. 

Catra picked it up and stared at it for a moment, a half smile on er face. “Well, looks like you have competition,” she teased her, her expression smug. Adora blushed at her words, she suspected Catra knew by then that she was really attracted to her, it was kind of obvious, but Catra hadn’t directly adressed the matter before. Adora took all the flirting as a game, really, as if to see who could push the other more but knowing they would never take it further. 

“Oh, with a stunning girl like yourself? I’m sure they aren’t the first competitor I’ll have to deal with,” Adora teased, she knew two could play that game. 

“Oh, shut up,” Catra said, slightly bumping Adora’s shoulder with her hand. Her face was also turning red, and Adora was about to keep on teasing her when she noticed that her friend had left a red staint where she had touched her. She could smell fresh paint, and taking a second look to Catra’s hand, she saw it was covered in it. 

“Catra, your hand is full of red paint,” she warned her friend. 

“Huh?” Catra mumbled, looking at her hand. “Fuck, I probably got it dirty putting away the jars. Sorry,” she gave her a smile that left Adora almost breathless. She really needed to start getting herself together around Catra, even the slightest display of affection from her part would sent her heart rising. 

“No worries,” Adora said, as she continued picking up the rest of the stuff. Making sure Catra wasn’t watching her, she opened one of the paint jars and sank her index finger in it, “just let me pay you back and we’ll be even.” 

And before Catra could understand what Adora was talking about, she jumped to her and poked her friend’s nose with her finger, leaving a big, green, staint on her face. 

“Adora!” Catra yelled, surprised. “You’re going to pay for this,” she threatened, smirking. She rushed to the bag where they had saved all the paint jars and quickly took one out. Meanwhile Adora made sure to be prepared fo Catra’s attack by getting her whole hand wet with paint. They stared at each other for a moment, trying to figure out who would make the first move. Suddenly, Catra darted towards Adora, so quickly that in the blink of an eye, her whole face was covered in red paint. Adora responded by extending her arm with all her strength towards Catra’s direction, so that the surplus of paint accumulated on her hand would fly and land on her. They continued their war paint for a while, knowing that the kids wouldn’t be awake for at least the next half hour. They laughed until they couldn’t breath, their clothes getting dirty but they didn’t care about it as they were having such a great time. That was until Catra realized she was out of ammo, and delivering one final blow on her cheek, Adora put a stop to the fight. 

Catching their breaths, they realized how messy they looked. Adora’s hair was almost untouched due to her ponytail, but Catra’s mane had gone completely wild with the movent. She quickly tried to get it back in control, until she surrendered to it and decided to tie it up as well. Adora observed her friend as she slowly grabbed her hair, thinking about how beautiful her face looked without those curls covering it. 

“As much as I enjoyed this,” Catra said, “we might as well have fucked up. How are we going to manage to do the rest of the activities like this?” she pointed at her clothes and body with both hands, completely covered in green paint. “We don’t have enough time to take a shower.” 

Adora took a hand to her chin, thinking about it for a second, “I think I have an idea.” 

About twenty minutes later, Adora and Catra were back on the hall where the kids had their usual nap. They put some mattresses on the floor for all of them to sleep there and have them under control, and because as they woke up, they had enough space there to play in silence while they waited for the others to wake up. They found most of the kids were already awaken, and Entrapta was showing them how to build a robot with legos. 

“There you are!” Entrapta screamed as she saw them enter. “Wow, you two are a mess. What happened?” 

“We... kind of got into a paint fight,” Adora admitted. 

“In other circumstances, I might be a little annoyed that you let me in charge while you go have fun, but these kids are the best!” Entrapta said, staring lovingly at them. “None of them cried, and they’re so happy to let me teach them how to build this robot!” she seemed to be really be enjoying her time with the campers. 

Adora and Catra exchanged a look. 

“Well,” Catra said, “I think we’re fine for now, Entrapta. Thanks for taking care of them.” 

“But wait! We still haven’t finished building the robot!” she begged, clearly disappointed to have to leave. 

“We won’t touch it, we’ll put it away just like it is and you can finish it later with them,” Adora reassured her. 

“Alright,” Entrapta said, with a half smile, “goodbye little ones! I’ll see you later!” She was about to leave when a couple of kids ran towards her and embraced her. She was shocked at first, clearly not accostumed to such displays of affection. But she quickly returned the hug, a big smile on her face. 

“Alright kids,” Catra said once they were all awake and awaiting for her instructions. The campers asked why Adora and her were all covered in paint, and they told them they had gotten dirty cleaning up the mess from the morning. “For the next activity we’re going to need you to put on your swimsuits, Adora will go with the girls to their cabin and I’ll go with the boys. You’ll all get dressed and then we’ll meet again near the lake, alright?” 

“Yes, Catra!” the kids cheerfully said at unison. They went with the campers to their respective cabins. Of course they didn’t help them get dressed, but they were there in case someone needed help. They took a while to get ready, as each cabin had only three bathrooms but there were thirty campers. Adora and Catra had already changed into their swimsuits before returning to Entrapta. 

Forty minutes later, they were all gathered together again. Adora and Catra smiled at each other, knowing the campers would love the surprise they had prepared. They were carrying one box each, covered with blankets so that the inside couldn’t be seen. 

“Very well,” Adora said, calling the kids’ attention, “are you all ready to see what’s inside the box?” 

“Yes!” the campers shouted. 

“I can’t hear you!” Adora told them, putting her hand around her ear. 

“Yeeeeeeees!” they shouted again, louder this time. 

“That’s better!” Adora and Catra uncovered the boxes, revealing them to be full of water guns. They campers cheered and clapped, already standing up to grab them. 

“Hold on everybody!” Catra calmed them down, “form two lines, one in front of Adora and one in front of me, we’ll give you one gun to each one of you.” 

The children quickly obeyed, and soon they were all testing their new toy and making partnerships and secret contracts with the other campers as if it was a real war. Adora couldn’t help but smile at them, she found it so cute how they took the game so seriously. 

“Okay kids, now listen,” Adora said, “here are the rules, you’ll charge your guns in the lake, please be very careful not to fall into it. If we see any of you inside the lake, the game is over, am I clear? Also no punching each other with the guns, we don’t want any of you to get hurt. And no pushing! If any of you breaks these rules, we’ll collect the guns and move on to another activity, probably much more boring than this one. Alright?” 

“Yes, Adora!” they said, nodding their heads. They were all twicthy and eager to start, most of them stimming with their hands and legs in excitment. 

“Okay,” Catra said, “ready... steady... go!” and as soon as she said it, all the kids rushed into the lake, trying to be the first one to reach it. They didn’t push each other, however, Adora and Catra knew they were nice children and that they would behave, that was one of the reasons they decided to do the activity on the first place. Last year, Adora had done it with a group of campers who were high-key hyperactive and also kind of violent. She couldn’t blame them, though, they were just children, they still didn’t quite measure their strenght and got carried away easily by their emotions, but literally two minutes into the game, two campers had already been bleeding. She didn’t repeat those kind of activities with them. But luckily this group was much more gentle. 

Soon, the children were happily running around, slapshing each other and enjoying themselves. They had even created an imaginary ‘war zone’, hiding themselves behind the bushes and only poking out their bodies to shoot the enemy team. Adora giggled staring at them, envying their imagination and how little it took to bring them joy. 

“God, I would have loved to come to one of this camps when were little,” Adora told Catra, who was next to her smiling at the sight of the cheerful campers as well. 

“Yeah, me too. Imagine if we were two of those kids.” 

“We would probably be competing against each other to see who could get the other more wet.” 

Catra snorted, “that, we can do now... It was your idea to play this game to get ourselves clean, remember?” she pointed at her body, which was still covered in paint, although it was dry by then. 

“I remember,” Adora said, and she went to fetch for the two water guns she had saved for Catra and herself. She handed one to her friend, who took it with a smirk and immediately headed to the lake to charge it. Adora smiled at her competitiveness, following her steps although she knew Catra already had the advantage. By the time she reached the lake’s edge, Catra had already loaded her gun and received her with a water jet on the face. 

“So you wanna play dirty?” Adora asked, rising an eyebrow. She knelt down, pretending she was going to charge her water gun, bus instead she sank her hand in the water and splashed Catra, getting her almost completely wet. Adora took advantage of Catra’s initial confusion to really charge her gun. 

“Oh you little-” Catra said, preparing herself to splash Adora as well, but the other girl quickly stood up and rushed away from the lake. Catra followed her, shooting water beside her to her back and butt. Adora would turn and try to hit Catra as well, but it was more difficult for her as she was walking backwards and needed to make sure that she wasn’t going to bump into any of the kids. Catra was faster than Adora, and it didn’t take her that much to be side by side with her. They continued shooting and dodging each other’s attacks, laughing so much Adora’s tummy had started to ache. Soon enough, any signs of the paint over their skin were gone, and by the time their guns ran out of water, they were panting and breathless, not only because of the physical effort involving their water fight but because of how much they had laughed. 

It took the campers about an hour to get bored of the game, and Adora and Catra continued the rest of the afternoon with different activities, feeling happier and closer than ever. The whole day had been like a nostalgia ride for when they were little, and would play and laugh for hours without any other preocupation than enjoying each other’s company. 

When the night came, it brought a group of enormous, black clouds with it. The temperature went down drastically in a matter of minutes, and the wind started to blow so hard that it seemed the trees were dancing from left to right. It was clear that a big storm was coming. 

Adora and Catra were already on their pajamas, getting prepared to go to bed, when the first lighting illuminated the whole sky, followed by the whole place being shaken by a thunder. Adora whistled as she saw the show through the window, already thinking about what kind of activities they could do tomorrow with the rain. She was about to propose something to Catra when another lighting struke the sky, and immediately after the lights of the cabin went off. 

“Fuck, the lighting must have messed up with the electricity,” Catra said. Adora could barely see her in the dark. In fact, she wouldn’t have been able to see her at all if the moon wasn’t almost full and its faint light entered through the window. 

Their phones rang at the same time, it was a message from Angella: 

\-- _Entrapta is going to check the power source, she’ll probably solve the problem in less than an hour. Meanwhile, go check your campers, make sure they’re alright and stay with them until the lights return. Thank you :)_

Catra sighed, “looks like we aren’t having a good night sleep tonight.” 

“You go check the girls, I’ll go with the boys,” Adora said, her friend nodding in response. “Oh, we should also take them their painting from today! That will distract them a little,” she added. They put on a sweater, picked up the works of art, and illuminating their paths with their phone flashlights, headed into the campers’ cabins. 

When Adora entered the place, some of the boys launched themselves towards her, greeting her with a hug. 

“How are my favorite boys doing?” she asked, hugging them back. 

“We’re doing fine! We aren’t scared of the dark!” one of them said. 

“I’m glad to hear it, but remember it’s also okay if you do are scared of darkness, you know? There’s nothing wrong with being afraid,” Adora tried to reassure them. She knew that, even if they were very little, toxic masculinity may had already gotten into their heads. She didn’t want any of the boys to feel bad for being scared. “Anyways, I brought something for you, it’s your drawings from today,” she said, taking them out of the bag she had put them in so that they didn’t get wet. She started to hand them out, until she reached out the last one: it was the portrait of Catra smiling. 

“That’s mine!” a boy nemed Luis said. 

“This is a very nice drawing, Luis,” Adora told him as she handed him the sheet of paper. 

“That’s because he has a crush on Catra!” another camper Adora recognized as Sebastian said. 

“So what?” Luis defended himself, frowning. 

Adora giggled, she wanted to tell Luis that Catra was too old for him, and also a lesbian, but she figured out he probably already knew it. Not the lesbian part, but the older part. 

“You can’t have a crush on Catra!” Sebastian said, “don’t you see she’s Adora’s girlfriend?” 

Adora’s smile fainted away, “my what now?” she asked Sebastian, confused. 

He was about to answer her, when another kid interrupted him. His name was Remi. “But Catra and Adora can’t be girlfriends, they’re both girls.” By his tone, Adora noticed that he didn’t mean it in a bad way, he genuinely thought women couldn’t date women. She couldn’t help but smile at his innocence. 

“Remi, women can fall in love with other women, there’s nothing wrong about it. In fact, it happens really often,” Adora told him, her tone soft so as she didn’t sound as if she was scolding him. 

“Really?” Remi asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise. 

“Of course.” 

“Does that mean that Catra is your girlfriend?” he asked, curious. 

“No, she’s not my girlfriend.” 

“Then why do you act all lovely-dovey around each other?” Sebastian asked, shocked by Adora’s words. 

Adora snorted, “you really think we act like that?” she was starting to realiz e these children were much more smarter and much more observant than she had initially thought. She made a note to herself to never underestimate them again. 

“Yes!” Sebiastian said, as if hoping Adora would admit they were actually dating. 

“Well, I’m sorry to break it to you, Sebastian, but we’re just friends.” 

The kid frowned, clearly not convinced by his conselour’s words, but he didn’t seem to have anything else to say about the matter. They quickly started speaking about other things, the campers showering Adora with questions about her past, her family, her college life. It was probably an hour later that suddenly some of the lights went on again, and, despite their complains to stay up a little while more, Adora put the kids to bed by telling them tomorrow they had to wake up early. 

Back in her cabin, Catra was already waiting for her. She looked a little worried about something. Outside, the storm was incessant, each minute growing stronger. Adora asked her friend if she was alright, and it took Catra a moment to answer. 

“I am... Actually really scared about the thunder,” she was staring at the floor as she said it, her arms crossed. How could Adora have forgotten about it? Catra had always had terror towards thunder. When they were little, she would cry for hours whenever there was a big strom, and as they grew older, she could only make it through the stormy nights without bursting into tears because Adora was sleeping beside her, calming her down. 

“I thought maybe- I could sleep with you tonight, if that’s okay,” Catra said, now staring at Adora. There was undoubtly fear in her eyes, but Adora also noticed a taint of something else, her gaze somewhat mischevious, as if insinuating something else. Or maybe she was just so desperate to believe that Catra wanted her that she was starting to imagine things. 

Adora didn’t answer at first, the proposal taking her by surprise. Catra interpreted her silence as a rejection, as her gaze quickly shifted into a sad and hesitant one. “I’m sorry... I shouldn’t have asked, I’ll-” she turned and headed towards the litter lader, but Adora grabbed her hand and stopped her. 

“No, it’s okay Catra, really. It just... took me by surprise, that’s all.” 

Catra gave her a faint smile, “thanks.” Adora turned down the lights and settled on the bed next to her friend. The bed wasn’t enormous, but it was big enough for them not to have to be touching one another, even if Adora yearned for the slightest contact. They were back to back at first, Adora thought that she could barely feel Catra’s presence beside her. Her limbs were starting to get numb, but just the idea of turning Catra’s way, and being so close to her, would make her whole stomach twirl. So she decided to stay still, hoping she would fall asleep even if her heart was going at a thousand miles per hour. 

So it was Catra the first one to turn around, Adora feeling her respiration agasint the back oh her neck. She was making the biggest effort to concentrate on something else, but she simply couldn’t. Her mind wouldn’t stop dreaming about turning around as well and look at Catra in the eyes, touch her as much as she could, kiss her, for real this time. She was wondering about how her lips would feel against hers, when suddenly she felt Catra‘s legs touching hers. At frist, she thought Catra might had been asleep and doing it by accident, but she quickly realized it wasn’t the case. It wasn’t a mere brush, Catra was slowly caressing Adora’s leg with her foot, getting closer so that her legs would get tangled with her own. Adora felt her whole body growing hotter, suddenly very aware of her sorroundings. She could hear her heartbeat loudly bumping on her head, utterly confused and nervous but at the same time excited. She didn’t even know it was possible to feel so many emotions at the same time. 

Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she slowly turned to face Catra. She was awake, of course, and had a smug expression on her face as she whispered to Adora: “I’m sorry, are my feet bothering you?” She tried to sound innocent, but her intentions were crystal clear. It was all over face, the way she spoke, the way she looked at her, her eyes hungry. 

Adora responded by shaking her head. Catra knew the effect she was having on her at the moment, she wasn’t stupid. Adora wasn’t also the best at hiding her emotions, and truth was, she didn’t want to hide them either. They kept on tenderly staring into each other for a couple of seconds, Adora aching to close the space between them but being too afraid to do so. Even if she was almost certainly sure Catra also wanted it, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She thought the whole situation might actually kill her from a heart attack, as she couldn’t bring her body to calm down even a little. In fact, it felt as if every second it got closer to combust itself on fire and explode. 

Catra raised her hand and took it to Adora’s cheek, softly stroking it without taking her eyes off her. Adora couldn’t help but to gasp at the contact, making Catra smile with her reaction. 

“Catra, what are you doing?” she asked her, trying to understand where all of this was coming from. 

“Do you want me to kiss you?” Catra responded, almost smirking. 

“What?” If Adora’s body was hot before, she felt she was being burnt alive by then. She couldn’t breath normally, she couldn’t think straight, her stomach wouldn’t stop tingling her. When did she allowed Catra to have that much power over her? 

“You heard me,” Catra said, sounding even more confident than before. 

Adora couldn’t take it anymore. She didn’t even have to answer Catra, as she let her desire take over her and grabbed Catra by the neck as she dragged her into a kiss. Sloppy at first, their tongues finding the rhythm, it quickly became deeper and passionate. It was clear how much they had both been waiting for it to happen, as Adora felt her body grow lighter every second, finally releasing all that tension accumulated from days of dreaming about this. Catra ran her hand through Adora’s hair, giving her goosebumps and making her long for more. She responded by grabbing Catra by the waist, pulling her closer as their bodies clashed against each other. Catra felt warm and sweaty against her, as she continued kissing her with such desire she thought it wasn’t even possible to experience. 

Adora seized that Catra broke the kiss to regain some air to climb on top of her, as she took her hands in hers and pinned each of her arms to Catra’s sides. 

“Damn Adora, a simple yes would have been enough,” Catra told her, visibly pleased with having achieved her goal, to drive her completely insane. Adora snorted and leaned down for another kiss, slower this time. She wanted to enjoy every bit of it. It was a very tender, Catra’s lips soft and wet against her until Catra bit her lower lip. That simple act sent waves of pleasure throughout Adora’s body. Eager for more, Adora slowly slid her hand under Catra’s shirt, but she quickly realized her friend was starting to feel uncomfortable. She suddenly grew stiff, and there was no sign of eagerness in her eyes anymore. Adora removed her hand from her friend’s stomach and went to lie down next to Catra again, who was avoiding her gaze, simply stairing at the bed upstairs, her expression a mixture of anger and shame. 

“Im so sorry Catra, I should have asked before touching you like that,” Adora told her, feeling like shit for ruining the moment. 

“No, Adora, it’s fine, really. I just...” she took a deep breath, “I’ve never done it before.” 

The confession shocked Adora, “really?”, she asked without thinking about it twice. 

“Yes, Adora, why would I lie about that?” there was a certain bitterness in her tone. 

“Sorry... It’s just that-” 

“You think it’s embarrasing.” 

“No! Not at all Catra. I just find it kind of hard to believe because, well, you’re beautiful, and funny, and flirty, and confident...” 

“It’s just that... I don’t know, everytime I’ve been out with another girl I simply didn’t feel... connected.” 

“You don’t have to feel connected with someone to have sex with them.” 

“Well, maybe for you it works like that, bur for me it doesn’t. I’ve never dated anyone, I can barely tolerate going out on three dates with a girl without feeling this urge to kick her out of my life before I catch feelings. And because of that, I never made a true connection with anyone, and I’ve never felt ready to do it.” 

“I think I understand,” Adora said, smiling at her. She extended her hand towards Catra’s one, hoping she wouldn’t reject her touch. Adora wanted to show her that her confession didn’t change the way she felt about her. Catra seemed to be surprised with Adora’s approach at frist, but she took her hand in hers, and her expression turned into a more relieved one as they laced their fingers together. 

“So what about you? I bet you get laid all the time in college,” Catra joked, although Adora knew she was actually curious about it. 

“All the time is an exaggeration... But you could say I’ve had some experiences,” for some reason she felt weird speaking about it with Catra. She wasn’t ashamed of having sex, it was normal, but she did care about Catra’s opinion, and she wasn’t sure if it would make her jealous, or make her feel less than her because she hadn’t had any sexual encounters. 

“And? Did you like them?” Catra did seem really interested on the topic anyways. 

Adora thought about it for a second, “yeah, for the most part.” 

They went silent, all the tension from earlier barely perceivable then. Instead, Adora felt comfortable next to Catra, holding her hand and staring at her as if she was the most beautiful thing in the whole world. Well, if she had to be honest, at that moment Adora did believe she was. 

“Thanks for tellng me, Catra,” Adora told her, squeezing her hand in reassurance. 

“I mean, you were probably going to find out anyways if I hand’t stopped you.” 

Adora giggled. “Do you, um, do you still want to sleep here?” the storm had almost stopped, only a soft drizzle could be heard outside, so there was no real reason for Catra to stay. 

Catra stared at her for a moment, and then gave her the softest smile Adora had ever seen on her face. Usually Catra always looked smug when smiling, as she only showed her smile when she was teasing her or when she was amused by something. But this time, it was different. It was a genuine smile, that erradiated nothing else than happiness. 

“Yeah, I would like that,” and that being said, she came close to Adora and kissed her lips once more, before turning her back to her but never letting go of her hand. Adora simply followed her movement, wrapping her body against hers. They fell asleep within minutes, and whenever Adora woke up in the middle of the night, and saw her friend lying next to her, she felt like the luckiest woman alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh well! First of all, I must admit I never intended for things to get that ~steamy, but I guess I got carried away. Anyways, I will not be including any NSFW scenes simply because I'm not comfortable writing them, but you might as well be prepared for some implied sexual content. I will add the tag to the fic, but I wanted to give all of you a heads-up in case you feel uncomfortable with that. 
> 
> Off topic, this fic already has 1500 hits and 100 kudos!! Thank you so much to everyone keeping up with my updates, commenting, and giving me your support!! I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am!


	10. The poisoning

Adora woke up the following day with Catra resting her head on her chest. The alarm hand’t gone off yet, but Adora always woke up a few minutes earlier simply because of habit. Catra was still peacefully sleeping, and Adora seized the moment to simply stare at her without having to worry about Catra teasing her about it. Her eyes scanned every tiny detail of her face, her cute freckles, her messy curls, her soft lips, and as she did, the more she convinced herself that Catra was the most beautiful person she would ever meet. She still couldn’t believe any of that was really happening, it had all been so fast and... weird. When she reunited with Catra on the first place, she thought she didn’t even know the person that her friend had become after all those years apart, but it quickly became clear that their friendship, their love for each other, hadn’t disappeared. A little bit more than a month ago they were strangers, but strangers who knew each other’s deepest fears, secrets, desires and behaviors, and strangers who somehow still cared a great deal about one another, even if Catra was denying it at first. So, thinking about it, Adora realized it wasn’t that weird they had ended up where they were. If their love had been able to endure for four years, it was clear that it was much stronger than they both had thought. 

The weird part, however, was that she had kissed her childhood best friend. Not only that, but she found herself daydreaming about kissing and wanting to be with her childhood best friend all the time. Back on their teenage years, Adora would have never imagined that they would end up like this. She suspected much that Catra had a mild crush on her, and she had fantasized about kissing Catra a couple of times, but the idea of acting on it was simply ridiculous because they were, well, best friends. People don’t go around kissing their best friends. More importantly, Adora wasn’t even sure about how she felt about Catra because at the moment she hadn’t even fully accepted she liked women on the first place. Catra had always been so sure about her sexuality, it made it look easy. When they would go to parties together, Catra would always end up making out with some random girl and Adora wouldn’t say she felt jealous about it, not exactly, but rather confused. Because every time she found Catra kissing with another girl, she felt this... desire to be that girl, to be the one holding Catra and enjoying that moment with her. And she had no idea of where that feeling came form, because she didn’t experience it with any other girls making out, just with Catra. She thought if she could go back and talk to her younger self she would yell to her,“you’re a lesbian, dumbass!”. In many ways, Catra was the reason Adora had started to question her sexuality on the first place. 

The alarm snapped Adora out of her thoughts. Catra started to softly move, grunting a little and taking her hands to her eyes as she massaged them before opening them and raising her head to meet Adora’s gaze. 

“Morning,” Adora told her, smiling at how cute Catra looked just woken up. 

“Why you staring at me like that?” Catra asked her, still dazed. 

“Because you’re beautiful.” 

That put a smile on Catra’s face. She moved her head closer to Adora and gave her a small peck on the lips, and then returned to lay on Adora’s chest as she closed her eyes. Not only that, she grabbed Adora’s waist with both arms and held her tight, clearly having no intention of getting up. Adora giggled and began to stroke her hair gently, making Catra hum with pleasure. 

“We’ll need to get up eventually, you know?” Adora told her, even if she was enjoying the moment as well. Catra simply responded by squeezing her harder. They stayed like that for a couple of minutes until the alarm went off again. Adora programmed the alarm to sound three times just in case, even though the first one was usually enough to send them both out of their beds. Or bed this time. 

“Come on, sleepyhead, we can’t be late for breakfast. The little ones need us to go look for them.” The older campers were big enough to walk around camp without having to be constantly supervised, so they met with their conselours directly at the dinning room every morning. With the little kids, however, Adora and Catra needed to go to their cabins and walk with them to the dinning room just in case they got lost or they decided to have a swim by the lake and get drowned. They, of course, woke up and got dressed by themselves, most times, at least. 

Adora tried to move in order to get up, but Catra held her even tighter. Without letting her go, she turned to look at her, frowning. 

“Oh, don’t look at me like that, you know we need to get up” Adora told her, half smiling. Catra sighed, and after a long pause she slowly, very slowly, let go of Adora and sat down on bed. 

The rest of the day went as any other day. They had breakfast, made activities with the kids, Adora suffered because she yearned to kiss Catra but couldn’t because she was working, the usual. The only difference was that when night came, Catra didn’t climb up the litter, but went to sleep next to Adora once more, and she couldn’t be happier about it. 

The following day Adora woke up with Catra’s body wrapped around hers, but she immediately sensed something was wrong. Catra was super hot, literally, her skin almost burning. She turned to face her and put a hand over her forehead, she was definetely running a fever. She woke up Catra very gently, and the first thing she did as she opened her eyes was to take a hand to her stomach and cry out in pain. 

Adora put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down, and told her she would text Angella and Micah about the situation so that Entrapta would cover for her during the day. No more than ten minutes later, Entrapta was franatically knocking at their door. Adora went to open her as Catra still layed in bed, and the woman rushed inside and headed towards Catra. 

“She’s sick as well? Jeez, we may be dealing with an infection!” Entrapta screamed, as she approached Catra, put a termometer under her arm and started examining her wholy body while she remained unmoving. 

“As well? Who else is sick?” Adora asked. 

“Perfuma and Spinnerella.” 

“Oh, wow.” 

“Yeah. Angella and Micah already called a doctor and they’re going to check the water supplies and test the water from the lake as well. If it isn’t the water it’s proably something they ate. Maybe some spoiled food Spinnerella and Netossa didn’t realize about. Meanwhile you’ll have to cover for Perfuma and work with Scorpia.” 

“What? Why?” Entrapta took Adora by surprise. It wasn’t that she wasn’t able to work hand in hand with Scorpia, they were job peers and they needed to behave like it, but if she had to choose, she would prefer not to. The memories about the lie were still very fresh between them, and everything had been more awkward than usual around her, especially since Adora suspected Scorpia knew that this time, Catra and her were really involved. 

“Because Scorpia can’t handle the teenagers on her own, they’ll eat her alive,” Entrapta told her. 

“No, I mean, why don’t you cover for Perfuma? I can handle the little ones on my own.” 

“Oh! Becuase I want to take care of them, we still need to finish building that lego robot.” 

Adora sighed, for a moment, she thought about protesting, to beg Entrapta to let her take care of the little campers, but Entrapta’s eyes were glistening with excitment about building that robot. And also, giving it a second thought, maybe spending some time with Scorpia wasn’t such a bad idea. It was an opportunity to get to know each other and hopefully make things a little bit less uncomfortable between them. 

“Alright,” Adora told Entrapta, “does Scorpia know about this?” 

“No, you should go tell her, I’ll keep and eye on your girl.” 

“She’s not my- oh, whatever,” and rolling her eyes, Adora headed into Scorpia and Perfuma’s cabin. She checked the time on her phone, she had ten minutes before breakfast. She figured out Entrapta would go fetch the little ones, since they were under her charge now. 

Scorpia opened the door for Adora, the smile on her face fainting a little as she saw her standing there. “Oh, hi Adora, is everything okay?” 

“Morning,” Adora smiled at her, trying to break the ice, “Catra’s sick as well,” she was about to explain to her the rest of the situation when Scorpia interrupted her. 

“Is she alright?” her voice suddenly acquired an anxious tone. 

“Well, she’s running a fever and has a stomach ache, Entrapta said it’s most probably a food infection. A doctor is on the way, though, so there’s nothing to worry about.” 

“Right,” Scorpia said, although still clearly upset. 

“Anyways,” Adora quickly continued before an awkward silence could grow between them, “I’ll cover for Perfuma today, and Entrapta will take care of the little ones, she was really excited to spend they day with them so...” 

Scorpia seemed surprised, and also kind of disappointed. Adora couldn’t deny she felt a little hurt by her expression, but she couldn’t blame her either after what she had done to her. However, Scorpia still maintained a calm attitude as she spoke. 

“Alright, I’ll tell you the activities we had planned for today on our way to the dinning room, we should be heading there anyways, it’s almost breakfast time.” 

Adora nodded in response. 

“Just, wait a sec while I go check on Perfuma one last time,” that being said, Scorpia turned around and went into the cabin, but she didn’t close the door, so Adora could see what was going on inside. Perfuma was lying on the lower part of the litter. She looked pale and exhausted, and she gave Scorpia a faint smile as she saw her approach. 

“I’m gonna head to breakfast now, you sure you can handle yourself on your own?” Scorpia asked, her tone completely changing into a soft and tender one. 

“Yes, I’ll be fine. I’ll probably just vomit everything in about an hour and feel better,” Perfuma answered, only half joking. 

Scorpia snorted, “alright, just text me if you need anyting, okay? And let me know what the doctor says.” 

“I will,” Perfuma told her, and before getting back to Adora, Scorpia gave her friend a tiny kiss on the forehead. Walking towards the dinning room, Scorpia told Adora that after breakfast they would make waxed string bracelets with the campers. She explained to her that Perfuma and her had already taught them how to do them, and that they seemed to really enjoy it. She also told her it was very difficult to find an activity that the whole group actually liked, as the teenagers were almost always complaining and simply wanted to have free time to secretly make out with each other. Scorpia told her Perfuma was having a real hard time mainting her positive attitude with them because of their ‘negative energy‘ and that it wouldn’t surprise her that her fever was just caused by stress. 

Adora was happy enough to hear it, she wasn’t particularly talented at making those kind of crafts, but that didn’t mean she didn’t enjoy them. And she had made some wax-coated thread bracelets when she was younger, so she hoped she hadn’t forgotten the technique. 

During breakfast, they found out Angella and Micah were helping Netossa at the kitchen while her wife was sick. They also told Scorpia and Adora they would have to help cook dinner, as they could leave their group unsupervised for a little while and Netossa really needed another pair of hands. Adora wasn’t thrilled about it, she was a terrible at cooking, but she thought at least the teens would get their much desired free time. 

After breakfast, they gathered the campers near the lake and, after Adora’s presentation, they got their hands into making those bracelets. Some of the boys were clearly against the activity, complaining it was too ‘girly’, and Adora was starting to understand why Perfuma was having a hard time dealing with them. But as the rest of the group seemed to be really into it, those annoying boys had no alternative but to shut up and do as the rest. They had made a playlist all together, each one had selected two songs and the music was playing in the background from a speaker one of the girl’s had brought. Adora found it amusing, as the music would drastically change from mainstream pop, to trashy hip hop to jazz. 

The first bracelet Adora made was a complete disaster. She had clearly forgotten most of the technique and was simply trying to figure out how to lace the threads in order that they didn’t end up like a messy knot. Scorpia would silently shoot glances at her every once in a while, as if deliberating whether to help her or not. Even if they had been able to mantain perfectly normal conversations, there was still a certain tension between them that Adora was finding difficult to break. She decided that if she really wanted to solve things with Scorpia, she was the one who needed take the iniciative. After all, she was the one that had betrayed Scorpia’s trust on the first place. 

“Would you mind helping me with this?” Adora told Scorpia, smiling at her. 

Scorpia didn’t answer at first, she simply stared at her expressionless. It was making Adora feel a little uneasy, as she couldn’t exactly figure out how Scorpia was feeling about this. 

“Sure,” she finally said, approaching Adora so that they were sitting just inches apart. There was still a certain coldness in Scorpia’s tone, but at least she seemed willing to help her. She patienly explained Adora the whole proccess, making sure she was following her and answering all her questions. 

“Wow, Scorpia, you’re really good at this,” Adora told her, not only because she wanted Scorpia not to hate her but because she really believed it. 

Scorpia thanked her with a half smile, and when her explanation was over, she went back to sit far away from Adora, clearly having no intention in mainting a conversation with her. Adora sighed, for some reason she had hoped the other girl would stay near her and that they could have some bonding time, but apparently Scorpia was not ready to let the issue go. So Adora thought it was best to give her space, or else she would end up making the matter worse. Scorpia’s demostration for making the bracelet had been really helpful, at least, and in no time Adora was already making a really nice set of bracelets. 

After lunch, they organized a football match with the campers, which Scorpia mentioned was there number one favorite activity. They all got really competitive over it, the girls teasing the boys, the boys teasing the girls, the girls teasing the girls... Anyways, it was clear that they all had the hots for each other and what better way to demostrate it than with a football game, right? Adora and Scorpia were the referees, and about 4 P.M they left the campers on their own to go help Netossa in the kitchen. 

They were making pizzas, and as there were around one hundred and thirty people in need to be fed, that meant _a lot_ of pizzas. Adora told herself to never take for granted Spinnerella and Netossa’s job after that day. Her job was to spread the salsa over the pizzas while Scorpia cut the cheese. Netossa was in charge of the oven as she didn’t want the girls to get burned even if they were both perfectly capable of handling an oven. 

Adora and Scorpia were working in silence, although it wasn’t uncomfortable as they were both concentrated on their respective tasks. However, Adora wanted to say something. She had proposed herself to make her relationship with Scorpia a little bit less awkward by the end of the day, but so far she hand’t achieved much. She thought about it for a couple of minutes, trying to figure out how to get Scorpia to loosen up. And suddenly, she realized there was one topic that always seemed to enthuase Scorpia. 

“So...” Adora started, hoping Scorpia would not think she was being a pain in the ass, “how’s having Catra as a roommate like?” 

Scorpia raised an eyebrow at her, Adora thought she looked somewhat confused by the question. Maybe it was because it had come out of nowhere. 

“It’s great, honestly. She’s fun to be around, she sings for me when I’m feeling down, we cook together... But you should know, weren’t you two rommates for like, more like ten years?” 

Or maybe that was the reason Scorpia seemed confused, because Adora was asking for something she should already know the answer on the first place. “Oh yeah,” Adora told her, “but it was different... We were younger and we lived with other people as well, and we didn’t have that much responsabilities either.” 

“Yeah... When I first met Catra she was a little bit of a slacker, but mostly because she hated her job and her apartment and had no motivation. Since she moved in with me she’s been much more responsible. She’s writing a lot as well, I try to push her to post some of her songs. She’s very talented and I think she would do great if she got herself into it. But she’s in complete denial, says she only writes for herself.” Scorpia wouldn’t stop smiling as she spoke about Catra, and her eyes were sparkling with a passion she hand’t seen in her before. She really loved her, didn’t she? Adora’s stomach slowly started to twist from the guilt. Even if she had never experienced unrequited love, she imagined it had to be one of the worst feelings ever. And even worse, it would have been to be next to the person your loved one was starting to cathch feelings for. Adora also realized how much Scorpia knew about Catra, perhaps even more than she did. Even if they had grown up together, Catra had certainly changed a lot during these past years, and Scorpia had been the one to be there for her during those changes. 

“Maybe in time she’ll gain the confidence to post one of them, Catra’s always been very private about her affairs,” Adora said. 

“Yeah...” Scorpia replied almost in a whisper. They became silent for a couple of seconds, until Scorpia continued speaking. “She writes a lot about, you know?” 

“About me?” Scorpia took her by surprise. 

“Yes, for what Catra has told me, I get the impression you were the person that taught her everything that people learn during their teenage years. What love is, what pain is, what being mad at someone is, what missing someone feels like... Does it really surprise that you’re her source of inspiration?” 

Adora frowned at Scorpia. Even if what she was saying made sense, there was a certain bitterness in the other girl’s tone that was making her feel uneasy. 

“Why are you telling me this?” Adora asked her, her words coming a lot sharper than she had intended. 

“I- um,” Scorpia doubted herself for a second, turning her gaze to the ground. She seemed to be debating whether to answer Adora’s question or not. Finally, she took a deep breath and raised her head to stare at Adora. “Honestly, Adora? Because you have no idea of how many times I’ve seen Catra suffer because of you these last past years. She has huge trust issues, sometimes I even catch her crying in the middle of the night even if it has been four years. She blames herself for everything, she thinks it’s her fault that you left her because she pushed you away and that guilt eats her alive. And lately she had been much better, it seemed that she was finally starting to get over the whole issue, but then you appear in her life again and she’s so... forgiving towards you. She loves you, I know she does, and I just... can’t understand it.” 

Adora didn’t find the words to answer. She felt she had been kicked in the gut. All the guilt she had been able to free herself from the last couple of days, returned and stronger than ever. She felt her body growing weak and started to get nauseous with anxiety. Mostly, because she knew Scorpia was right. She had hurt Catra deeply, and no matter how much Catra forgave her, there was no way she could take the pain she had caused her for so long out of her life. 

Scorpia must have noticed her words had left utterly heartbroken, as she quickly broke the silence. “I’m sorry, Adora. You really seem like a nice person and all, and for what is worth, I do believe you’re making Catra happy. It’s just that when it comes to her I-” 

“It’s alright, Scorpia, I get it. You love her and you would do anything to protect her. You don’t have to explain that to me.” 

Scorpia simply nodded, scraching the back of her neck. She did seemed a little ashamed for having snapped at Adora like that. “Despite everything,” she said, “I do believe I owe you a thank you. Since you came back to Catra’s life, I have realized how long I have been stuck in love with her even though she has made it clear she doesn’t feel the same way many times. I know I should have worked on it before, but I simply... couldn’t let her go, especially since we live together. But it’s not fair, neither for me or for Catra. You have helped me start to move on.” 

Scorpia had left Adora speechless yet once more, unsure of how to answer to that. She gave her an awkward smile and simply said, “you're welcome, I guess?” althought she didn’t sound sure about it. Scorpia giggled at her reaction. 

“Gosh, I’m sorry, I have a tendency to overshare,” she sounded much more relaxed and comfortable than before, probably feeling lighter from taking all of her bottled up emotions out of her chest. 

Adora gave her an understanding head shake, “don’t worry,” she reassured with a half smile. She wasn’t mad at Scorpia, after all she had just expressed the way she felt about the situation. Had she been a little too harsh? Maybe, but Adora knew she deserved it. She was actually mad at herself, reminding herself of her past mistakes. She still felt like shit but the fact that Scorpia seemed to be more comfortable around her after their talk reassured her a little. At least she had achieved what she had initially wanted. 

“So, no hard feelings?” Scorpia turned to face her directly. 

“No hard feelings,” Adora anwered, extending her hand to give her a hand shake, but she should have known Scorpia would embrace her in a tight hug and lift her off the ground. 

“Oh man, I feel so much better now,” Scorpia said, releasing a huge sigh. 

Adora went back to spread the salsa, but as she turned she realized Netossa was staring at them with her eyes wide and a faint smile on her face. She exchanged a brief look wiht Adora, and then returned to the oven without saying a word. 

After dinner, Adora returned to the cabin with a tupper full of warm rice and some grilled chicken Netossa had especially prepared for the sick girls. Catra was still laying on the bed, using her phone, but she looked much better than in the morning. 

“Oh, finally!” she screamed as she saw her entering, “I was getting bored as fuck already.” 

Adora couldn’t contain a smile. She sat by the edge of the bed and handed her the tupper with a fork and knive she had brought as well. Catra quickly opened it and starting devouring it as if she hand’t eaten in days. 

“How are you feeling?” Adora asked her. 

“Fine, I puked like three times but now I’m feeling much better. The doctor said it was food poisoning,” Catra answered with her mouth full. 

“Well, go easy on that food, I don’t want you to vomit again.” 

“Adora, I haven’t had anything else than water today, my tummy was growling like crazy.” 

Adora snorted. She told her friend she was going to get a bath and left her alone to eat. Once she returned, she was ready to go to bed, it had been an exhausting day. Catra had already finished her meal and seemed to be waiting for her. However, Adora felt her body burning with guilt as she approached the bed. Scorpia’s words were still echoing on the back of her mind, and laying down next to Catra seemed wrong and selfish after everything she had done to her. 

“I’m going to sleep upstairs for tonight, I don’t want to get infected as well,” Adora told her, looking for an excuse. 

“What? Food poisoning isn’t contagious dummy,” Catra said between giggles. 

“You can never be too sure,” and Adora went to turn off the lights and headed to the litter’s stairs. 

But before she could put her feet on the first step, Catra extended her hand to grab hers. “Adora, wait,” her eyes looked sad, “Is-is something wrong?” she asked, her voice cracking a little. 

Yes. She felt like shit for having abadoned her for four years without an explanation and felt she didn’t deserve Catra’s forgivness or love. But she knew it wasn’t the time to have that kind of conversation, not when Catra was still recovering and when they had work to do in the morning. 

“Everything’s fine Catra, I just want you to be as comfortable as possible. You still need to get well,“ Catra simply stared at her, clearly not buying Adora’s words. She frowned as she let go of her hand, and responded an “okay” which came almost in a whisper. She seemed heartbroken, and all that Adora wanted was to lay by her side, hug her and give a good night kiss and let her fall asleep between her arms, but Scorpia’s words came bumping into her mind again and again and again like an audio on repeat. She contained herself from falling to her selfish desire, and without stopping to look at Catra as she knew it would only make matters worse, she climbed up to the bed and went to sleep on her own, although her intrusive thoughts barely allowed her to do so for the rest of the night.


	11. The tears

"Hear me out, Bow, this is the moment when Adora tells us she’s been sleeping with Catra all along,” Glimmer said, smirking and taking her hands to her hips. 

Adora was about to call her out, but for a moment she hesitated. She had slept with Catra after all, just not in the sense Glimmer was refering to. 

“Oh my God!” Bow said pressing both hands against his cheeks, “you _have_ been sleeping with Catra!” 

“No!” Adora screeched. She paused, “well... yes,” she was about to explain them what ‘sleeping with’ actually meant but Glimmer quickly interrumpted her as she yelled, “I knew it!” 

“Could you both just listen to me?!” Adora snapped. She had been trying to update her friends about the whole Catra situation, but since she had arrived to their cabin about ten minutes ago, they hand’t done anything else than to interrupt her. 

“Are you serious, Adora?” Glimmer’s scolding tone was starting to irritate her, “you barely talked to us this past week, and now you come in, drop this bomb and expect us to be calm about it?!” 

“I haven’t had sex with her, okay? We just... shared the bed, that’s all.” 

“Oh, come on! You shared a bed with her and you’re telling me that you haven’t at least touched her a little? How stupid do you think we are?” Glimmer apparently wasn’t ready to drop the issue. 

“No, seriously Glimmer, she’s...” for some reason she lowered her voice to say it, as if Catra could somehow listen to their conversation, “she’s a virgin.” 

“What?!” Bow asked, getting closer to Adora. 

“She’s a virgin, Bow, she has never done it. And she told me she’s not ready to do it yet, and I respect that.” 

“Oh...” Bow answered, nodding a little. 

“Well, that doesn’t change the fact that you’ve been, you know, sharing a fucking bed! Adora, why haven’t you told us about this?” Adora had to take a deep breath in order to control herself from snapping at Glimmer. She was, clearly, mad that Adora hadn’t been updating them daily about her relationship with Catra, as she had sensed there was something going on yet Adora hadn’t gone to tell her a thing. For that reason, she had been pushing Adora’s buttons since they had first met that afternoon. And Adora knew she had the right to be bothered, but she also knew Glimmer didn’t realize how agressive she became when she got angry. 

“Because I’ve been busy! I had barely had any time to rest these last days. The little ones need to be supervised _all_ the time. Sometimes I had to stay with them until midnight till they all fell asleep because they got scared of the boogey man!” Adora told Glimmer, hoping she hadn’t sound as annoyed as she actually was. 

Glimmer closed her eyes and took a deep breath, realizing that the conversation was getting a little over the top and that they both needed to calm down before things got out of control. “Alright,” she said, opening her eyes again, “what else haven’t you told us?” 

Adora bit her lip, she hadn’t told them a lot of stuff. She begged her friends not to interrupt her anymore, as she began detailing everything that had happenned the last few days. From the kitten incident, to that stormy night, to Scorpia’s confession, to that same afternoon. She told them how she had been avoiding Catra the whole day, unsure of how to tell her that whatever was going on between them was wrong and needed to stop before she could hurt her even more than she had already had. 

Glimmer and Bow listened attentively, gasping and clapping their hands on the juicy parts. 

“So... let me clear this out,” Bow said, scraching his chin, “you’ve been living a fanfic the last days of your life and we, your best friends, had no idea about this?” 

“I told you I was busy!” Adora couldn’t contain herself from yelling this time, “listen, guys, I would really appreciate if you would just... help me out with this. I really like Catra, but I just- can't get what Scorpia told me out of my head. How can I lay her down easily?” 

“You can’t,” Glimmer answered, sharply. 

“Wow, thanks, that helps a lot,” Adora said ironically, rolling her eyes. 

“No! What I mean is that you shouldn’t,” Glimmer let out a sigh and put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Listen, Adora, even if I don’t like Catra that much, I have never seen you happier than when you’re with her. You literally shine around her, seriously, it’s kind of disgusting.” Adora gave her a half smile. “I know you’re still feeling guilty about it, and honestly, knowing you, I don’t think you will ever stop feeling guilty, but you have already apologized to her, and she has clearly forgiven you.” 

“But how? How can she forgive so easily? I don’t understand,” Adora asked her friend, although she knew she didn’t have the answer to that. 

“Maybe you should ask her,” Bow said softly, “you know? There’s no way to really solve this rather than just... talking about it. You can’t ignore her forever.” 

“You’re right... I just feel this... constant fear of hurting her again and I can’t live with it any longer.” 

“Then what good would it do to push her out of your life again?” Glimmer told her, “Adora, she seems really happy to have you back in her life. Do you really think ending your relationship now would make things better? You would just hurt her even more,” Glimmer squeezed her shoulder to reassure her. 

“I agree with Glimmer, you should go and be straightforward with her. Be clear about the way you feel and see how it goes,” Bow added. 

“You’re asking me, a lesbian, to be _straight_ forward?” Adora joked, taking a hand to her chest. 

They both giggled, “you know what I mean,” Bow said. 

Adora nodded, digesting everything their friends had told her. “You’re right guys, I’ve been acting stupid. Catra must be so confused now,” her eyes were fixed on the floor as she was suddenly invaded by guilt. How ironic, she thought, she had been feeling guilty for abandoning her and that led her to almost letting her go again. And now she felt guilty about it, yet again. She felt so thankful for having friends that made her see how absurd the whole situation was. 

Adora let out a soft growl, “I’m so sorry, all I have done is bother you with my stupid relationship drama,” she covered her face with her hands, embarrassed. 

“Are you joking? We _love_ relationship drama!” Bow said, his eyes glistening. 

“Plus, that’s what we’re here for,” Glimmer added, “since the first day when you reunited with Catra we knew things were going to be like this, and we’re happy to help.” Glimmer grabbed Adora’s hands in hers, removing them from her face, and gave her friend a comforting smile. 

“I just don’t know how you tolerate me,” Adora muffled. 

Glimmer snorted, “we don’t ‘tolerate’ you, we _love_ you. We know you would the same thing for us. You’re not bothering us, okay? We’re doing this with pleasure.” 

Her friend’s words did calm Adora down, who found herself not being able to contain a smile, “thanks, guys. Seriously, you’re the best.” 

Bow and Glimmer both approached Adora and wrapped their arms around her. They stayed like that for a while, Adora finally feeling at peace with herself for the first time since her chat with Scorpia. She could almost physically feel the negativity inside her leave her body and dissolve into the air. 

Without letting her go, Bow told Adora, “now go find Catra and remember, be honest. Everything will be alright.” 

“And also remember to tell us what happens later!” Glimmer said, her scolding tone coming back. 

They let her go, and Adora stood up, her mind made up to face her fears. But as she opened the cabin door, she remembered one last thing. 

“Bow, what are we doing tonight? It’s raining like crazy,” she had been so worried about Catra that, for a moment, she had completely forgotten it was Saturday, which meant that after dinner they were supposed to have their little party. But the weather was clearly not on their side, unless they wanted to end up singing soaken wet in the middle of the dark. 

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ve got it covered, I’ll text you all later,” he said with a smile. 

“Okay...” Adora doubted whether to leave for a second, wanting to know more about her friend’s plan. 

“Now go!” Bow told her, frowning. He knew Adora all to well and knew she was just looking for an excuse to avoid dealing with Catra. 

“Alright, alright... Love you!” and that being said, Adora put on her hood and made her way towards her cabin through the pouring rain. Before closing her friends’ cabin door, however, she heard Glimmer shouting “we love you too!” from the inside, and that gave her all the confidence she needed to confront the unpleasent situation she knew she was heading into. 

“Okay Adora, would you cut the bullshit already? Why have you been ignoring me?” Catra told her as soon as she saw her enter. She had been laying on the bed but had stood up to face Adora. 

Adora took a deep breath, closing the door behind her. She knew she had to face the issue, but she hand’t expect it to be literally at the moment she put a step on the cabin floor. Then again, it was Catra she was deling with, and she knew her friend wasn’t the most patient person out there. Adora took out her hood and approached Catra, hesitatingly taking her hand. Catra twitched a little at the contact, clearly not having expected it. 

“I’m sorry Catra, you’re right I-” she paused, looking for the right words, “can we sit down?” she turned to look at the bed, which was the only place they had to sit. Catra stared at her, her gaze a mixture of resentment and fear. 

“Okay Adora, you’re really freaking me out right now,” she did, however, followed Adora’s steps into the bed and sat next to her, Adora squeezing her hand harder. 

“I’ve been... having doubts about whatever is going on between us,” Adora didn’t really know how to start this kind of conversation. She also didn’t want to mention her earlier exchange with Scorpia, as she didn’t want to cause her any trouble with Catra. 

“Doubts?” Catra asked, rising her eyebrow. She looked rather confused. 

“Yes, doubts. I’ve been... feeling guilty, because of how I abandoned you. I just, don’t understand how you were willing to forgive me so easily.” 

Catra’s gaze softened a little at her words, “come on Adora, I thought we were over this already,” she was smiling for some reason Adora didn’t understand either. 

“No, I am not over it. Seriously Catra, I made your life miserable for all those years... How can you not hate me?” 

Catra snorted, “is that what you really think?” 

Adora nodded in response. 

Catra took a deep breath, letting go of her hand and frowning a little. “First of all, Adora, you weren’t my whole life. I mean, maybe when we were kids you were a huge part of my life, but when you left me, I created a new life for myself. I made new friends, then I got a job, started saving money to finally travel. And yes, I won’t deny that sometimes I did feel like shit because of you, but it also made me stronger. You made me stronger, you taught me that life isn’t always what you expect it to be, and how to deal with those sorts of situations. I have learnt and grown a lot these past years, and I’m so thankful about it.” 

Adora couldn’t believe her friend’s words. She had been driving herself nuts over the fact that she had made her suffer for the last four years of her life, only for Catra to tell her she was _thankful_ for it? She shook her head and let out a snort, feeling more stupid than ever. 

“I’m sorry, Adora” Catra said, noticing her reaction, “listen, I’m not saying that you didn’t hurt me. You did, and it took me a while to actually let go of the whole thing... I still cried about it sometimes even as an adult. What I’m trying to say is that, you didn’t ruin my life. You didn’t ‘make my life miserable’. We were young, and stupid, and I should have been more understanding with you as well. We made mistakes but I don’t regret anything, because those experiences make me the person I am today. I have forgiven you, and I have forgiven myself, you should forgive yourself now,” Catra took her hand to Adora’s cheek and softly stroked it. Adora didn’t remember when she had started to cry, but she felt her warm tears landing on her friend’s fingers. She couldn’t meet her gaze, she was too ashamed to do so, to show her how vulnerable she made her feel. 

“I just- don't want to hurt you again, I’m tired of feeling guilty all the time Catra, you have no idea of how much-” Adora was making a huge effort for her voice not to crack, for not letting that huge knot she felt throbing on her throat take full control of her. 

_“Shhhhh,_ ” Catra got slowly closer to her, until their foreheads were touching each other, “you won’t hurt me again, I know you won’t,” she said almost in a whisper. 

Adora finally had the guts to meet back her gaze, and in Catra’s eyes she saw how confident she was in her statement. Adora couldn’t contain her tears anymore, who were falling unceasingly by then, as she poorly tried to contain her sobs. 

“How can you be so sure about it?” 

Catra smiled, “cause, Adora, you’re literally the kindest person I’ve ever known. You care about people in a way I could never do so. And you care about me, you have done nothing but to demostrate it since the day you got back into my life.” 

Adora couldn’t help but smile, and as she did she tasted the salty tears that were running down her cheeks and landed on her mouth. Catra was trying to clean them out of her face but her fingers weren’t enough to contain them. Her words had relieved her though, and Adora felt her body finally relax under her touch and start to feel warmer and lighter. Catra leaned closer and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, in an attempt to clean the tears with her lips as her hands were not enough for the job. The gesture deeply soothed Adora, and she was able to stop sobbing, although she was still too overwhelmed to speak. 

“Now come on, you look like you could use some rest,” Catra told her, and grabbing her by the hand, she slowly leaned down into the bed, taking Adora with her. Adora placed her head in Catra’s collarbone, as Catra wrapped her arms around her and squeezed her tightly. They stayed like that for a while, with their eyes closed, Adora not wanting to sleep but simply enjoying the soft movement of Catra’s chest as she breathed. She didn’t remember the last time she had felt so healed and tranquil in her life, but she wished she could have stayed like that forever. 

Once she felt completely back on her senses, she was able to muffle the words, “thanks, Catra.” The other girl opened her eyes to stare at her, a faint smile on her face, and Adora felt her stomach twirling as she was invaded with a wave of love she had never experienced before. She leaned in and put her lips against Catra’s, who hummed a little bit in contentment with the display of affection. It wasn’t a hot or steamy kiss, but a tender one, in which Adora hoped she would transmit her all the emotion she was feeling towards her. When their tongues met, It wasn't with a hungry desire, but with the need to connect with each other, to be closer in a way they would feel they would never be separated again. 

They continued to lay in bed for a while, sometimes speaking about random stuff, sometimes simply touching each other’s hair or holding hands, sometimes kissing each other. Adora completely lost track of time, and was only brought back to reality when she heard her phone vibrating on the night table. In other circumstances, she wouldn’t have bother to check the message, but she was, after all, still at her workplace and she never knew when her bosses could text her about something important. Catra’s phone had also rang, so Adora figured it was probably Angella or Micah informing them about something. However, as she turned on the screen she saw it was actually Bow. 

_\--After dinner, we’ll meet at the main hall. No bonfire today because of obvious reasons, but that won’t stop us from partying!_

Adora and Catra exchanged a look. 

_\--You’re not going to tell us what we’re going to do?_ Adora messaged him. 

_\--It’s a surprise :)_

Rolling her eyes, she put down her phone and went to lay back with Catra. She looked really happy. And staring into her eyes she thought it was probably the longest she had ever seen her smile since she had met her.


	12. The happiness

Dinner was nice, Adora enjoyed having the dinning room empty just for the counselors to eat. They could finally have a decent chat with each other without the constant screams from the campers and their interruptions. The overall mood between them seemed to be much better by then than when the summer had started, not only because they knew each other better but because there wasn’t this palpable tension between Catra and Adora, or Adora and Scorpia for the matter, anymore. Bow was trying to be secretive about his plans for the evening, but Adora already had a very strong suspicion of what he had in mind.

Once they had their tummies full, they all headed into the main hall. Bow had gone a little bit earlier because he said he wanted to be there when they arrived to `see their faces´. The first thing Adora noticed when approaching the place, was the sweet smell of popcorn coming from the inside, and she knew that her suspicions had been correct. What she hadn’t expected, though, was for Bow to decorate the whole place with yellow led lights hanging on the walls, cushions and blankets all over the place for everyone to get cozy, and a three huge bowls full of popcorn laying on the floor making Adora’s mouth get watery with anticipation.

“It’s movie night!” Bow screamed, showing off the place with his arms.

“Wow, Bow, this is really nice,” Adora smiled at him. Her friend had really outdone himself.

“It’s amazing!” Scorpia exclaimed, her eyes glistening with excitement as she launched herself into the mattress of cushions.

“Oh, it was nothing,” Bow said gesturing with his hand, although he was blushing a little. Even Catra seemed a little impressed with the whole thing.

“How did you even make the popcorn?” Mermista asked.

“That was on Spinnerella and Netossa, you should thank them later,” he answered.

“And it even smells like flowers!” Perfuma added, smiling, “you used that incense I gave you, didn’t you?”

Bow nodded, clearly proud with himself. “Well, what’s everyone waiting for? Go sit down, and we’ll decide which movies to watch.”

They all made themselves comfortable, sitting down around the place facing the projector. Adora decided to sit on the corner, so that she could lay her back on the wall. Catra didn’t hesitate to sit right beside her, quickly curling down by her side and placing a blanket around them. It warmed Adora, not just literally, but it made her feel warm with affection on the inside, to have Catra being so openly affectionate with her after everything. Under the blanket, Adora grabbed Catra’s hand in hers, bringing a smile to her friend’s face. She loved that smile so much, she felt this immense urge to kiss her, but she knew she had to contain herself. Adora wasn’t really sure about how Catra felt about pda, but she did know kissing her right there would get the others talking, and she wasn’t ready to deal with that, especially since she didn’t want to hurt Scorpia’s feelings. Even if she had told her that she had started to move on from Catra, Adora imagined it wasn’t something that somebody could achieve in the span of two days.

Soon enough, they were all fighting about which type of movie to watch. Sea Hawk wanted to watch _Mamma Mia_ , Mermista was a fan of a noir movie from the early fifties which was still on balck and white, Perfuma insisted on watching a romantic, coming of age film. The point was, it was clear they weren’t going to reach an agreement, but Bow had already planned this out, of course. Each of them would write the movie they wanted to watch in a piece of paper, fold it into a tiny ball, hand it to Bow and he would pick up one randomly out of his hand. It wouldn’t make everyone happy, but it was the fairest way to deal with the issue. Adora wasn’t sure about what she wanted to watch, so she simply wrote `She-ra’ as it was always a good choice for her. Catra mocked her about it, telling her she couldn’t tolerate to watch that movie ever again after having watched almost every week of their lives when they were little. Catra, instead, went for a Tarantino movie, of course she would choose something violent and action-based.

Everyone nervously stared at Bow as he slowly shook his hand containing all the pieces of paper. There was complete silence in the room except for Scorpia’s heavy breathing out of nervousness. Carefully, Bow removed one of the papers from his hand and sighed in disappointment before reading it:

“Final destination,” Bow softly slapped his forehead, clearly unhappy with the result.

“Yes!” Glimmer celebrated in the back, raising her arm in victory.

“Wow, did Sparkles choose that? She didn’t strike me as the horror type,” Catra told Adora. She sounded pleased with Glimmer’s choice.

“Yeah… Glimmer loves gory movies, don’t let her sparkly appearance fool you, she’s actually pretty intense,” Adora answered, only half joking.

“It seems I might have underestimated her,” Catra smirked, glancing at her side.

“Oh man, are we really watching a horror movie? I don’t know if I can take this!” Scorpia cried, clenching into Perfuma who was sitting next to her.

“The rules are the rules,” Bow shrugged at her and went to put on the movie.

Adora didn’t mind the movie, actually. She wasn’t a fan of the genre, but it didn’t scare her either. She simply didn’t understand what her friends found interesting about seeing a bunch of people get butchered on screen. Although she had to admit, most times horror movies were so poorly acted, that at least they made her laugh. That, and Bow’s little screams whenever someone got murdered. Catra, on the other hand, looked _pumped_ about the movie, her eyes glistening enthusiastically as she held Adora’s hand tightly. 

“I’ve gotta admit, Sparkles, this was a _great_ choice,” Catra told Glimmer, speaking louder so that she could hear her this time. 

“I know, right?” Glimmer was almost squealing in excitement, stimming her hands relentlessly, “I wasn’t sure whether to choose the first one or the third one, they are my favorite two, but the first one just brings me so much nostalgia, you know?”

“Oh, totally!” Catra told her, looking as passionate as her. Adora and Bow exchanged a look as Glimmer and Catra continued to ramble about the saga. Bow shrugged at Adora, and even though she hadn’t expected for Glimmer and Catra to bond over the _Final Destination_ franchise, it was nice to see them getting along for once. She grabbed a popcorn bowl and started eating, thinking she might as well enjoy it.

As the movie went on, Adora noticed how they all had, even if it was unconscious, sat down with their work partner. Sea Hawk was sitting on Mermista’s lap, and she was barely able to watch the movie because of it, but she apparently didn’t mind at all. She complained about how boring the movie was and spent most of her time staring at her phone except for when the boy on top of her would jump out of fear and she would try to calm him down. 

Scorpia and Perfuma were holding each other as if it was the end of the world, covering each other’s eyes whenever there was a particularly gory part. They would cry about how awful and unnecessary it was to watch a horror film and counted each minute left for the movie to end. Adora wasn’t sure if Catra was more amused about the movie or about how scared their companions were. Glimmer and her wouldn’t stop commenting how awesome the bloody scenes were, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Catra didn’t let go of her hand during the whole time, Adora would have sworn Catra wasn’t even acknowledging her presence, being too abstracted in the film. Adora didn’t enjoy the movie itself, but she loved seeing Catra’s pupils dilating with sheer emotion, and her ridiculously cute laughter whenever there was a scene that amused her, or the way she would get so excited she wouldn’t notice the tiny jumps she made. 

“Sea Hawk! Watch out! There’s something strange beside you!” Catra suddenly shouted, pointing at him. 

Sea Hawk screeched in fear, as he immediately jumped from Mermista’s lap and started looking around the room in desperation, “where?!” he asked, his voice almost cracking.

Glimmer and Catra burst nto laughter, holding their tummies from laughing so hard.

Sea Hawk frowned at them, “oh, you were just messing with me, I see. Of course I wasn’t scared!” he affirmed, quickly going to sit back on Mermista. 

“Yeah, right,” Catra mocked him, still between laughters. 

“Come on guys, that was kind of mean,” Bow told the two girls who were now cleaning away the tears of joy from their faces. 

“I know, I’m sorry, I just… Did you see his face? I couldn’t help myself,” Glimmer said, clearly trying to contain herself from cracking again.

Bow rolled his eyes and a minute later Adora got a message from him: 

_\--Remind me to never let these two hang out together again_

Adora smiled at the text, glancing at her two friends who were still calming themselves down. 

_\--I prefer this over the screaming and fighting_

_\--I’m not so sure about it_

Everyone but Glimmer and Catra sighed in relief as the movie finally came to an end. Bow stood up and picked up the tiny pieces of paper again to see which movie they would see next, and to lighten up the mood after _Final Destination_ , the movie that came out was _Mamma Mia_. 

Sea Hawk, Scorpia and Perfuma cheered and clapped while Catra and Glimmer rolled their eyes.

“Bo-ring!” Catra screamed and went on to lay her head on Adora’s lap, as if getting ready to sleep. Mermista was also unhappy with the result, and she told Sea Hawk to go hang out near Scorpia and Perfuma while she made herself comfortable on the floor, preparing for a nap as well. Within the first ten minutes of the movie, Glimmer, Catra and Mermista were already asleep. Adora wondered how the other counselor’s singing didn’t wake them up, as they were shouting out the lyrics as if the hall was actually a Broadway scenario. They even stood up and started to perform the most iconic parts. Bow, however, was restraining himself from joining his partners as Glimmer was resting on his shoulder. Adora, on her part, didn’t know any of the songs, but even if she had known them, she preferred to be laying there with Catra on her lap. She suspected that her friend wasn’t actually asleep anyways, considering how easily any tiny noise would usually wake Catra up. She was just pretending to have a reason to cuddle with Adora. She looked so peaceful and adorable, though, that Adora didn’t dare to even flinch a little. She, instead, tenderly brushed Catra’s hair with her fingers, and Adora swore that sometimes Catra’s lips would turn into a smile. 

Over time, however, Adora started to feel her body grow numb and fatigued. She felt the weight of her eyelids struggling to maintain themselves open. Before giving in to the exhaustion as well, she shot a glance to Bow who was still sitting there, staring as the other had fun. When their eyes met, he smiled and gave her a thumbs up for, Adora figured, having Catra curled up with her. She smiled back, and realized how eager he seemed to go perform along Sea Hawk, Perfuma and Scorpia. She whispered to him, loud enough for him to hear her but not loud enough to wake up the girls, to softly wake up Glimmer and tell her to go snuggle with her so that he could go. Bow stared at her friend laying by his side and hesitated, but then his favorite song came in and he made up his mind. Glimmer was confused at first, but as Bow quickly explained, she stood up, still wrapped in a blanket, and walking like a zombie she went to sit next to Adora, on the opposite side of Catra. Without saying anything, she rested her head on Adora’s shoulder and closed her eyes, and in two minutes she was dreaming once more. Adora smiled at the sight of her friends sleeping, they made her feel as if she was at home, and it didn’t take her long to join them in their sleep. 

She felt something touching his elbow, and opened her eyes to find Bow looking sweaty and disheveled. She didn’t know how long she had been asleep, but she noticed the movie’s ending titles projected into the wall, so it had been at least an hour. Glimmer and Catra were still sleeping by her sides, and the rest of the crew was panting and catching their breaths in the back. They looked as messy as Bow, and it was clear for Adora that they had gotten carried away with their acting. She woke up the other girls as gently as possible, both of them softly growling and shaking their heads. Adora stood still, realizing how every movement she made was a bother to her still sleepy companions. Eventually they opened their eyes, yawning and stretching as they slowly stood up. 

“Well, this was fun!” Perfuma said, “except for the horror movie part, let’s not that again.” 

“I agree,” Scorpia said, smiling at her. 

“It warms my heart to know you enjoyed it,” Bow told them, taking a hand to his chest. 

“Well, good night everyone! I hope we can do this again sometime!” Sea Hawk said, and as he was heading towards the exit, Scorpia put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. 

“Aren’t you forgetting someone?” she asked him, pointing at Mermista who was still peacefully sleeping on the floor.

“My God! You’re right!” he bumped his forehead with his hand and kneeled down next to her. He stroked her arm, “Mermista, baby, wake up! Time to go home!” he told her, although not as gently as Adora would have expected for someone who was asleep. 

“I’m not your baby,” Mermista mumbled, without opening her eyes. 

“Alright, babe, do you want me to carry you?” Sea Hawk asked. At that, Mermista opened one eye and glanced at him, hesitating. She slowly stood up, releasing a soft grown. 

“Thanks, Sea Hawk, but I think I can handle myself,” she told him, serious. 

While they continued their conversation, the rest of the crew said goodbye to each other and started to get back to their places. Catra was the first one to leave, complaining about the noise and the light, and Glimmer was the next behind her. Then it was Perfuma and Scorpia, who exited the place holding each other’s hands, a detail Adora didn’t miss, and lastly it was Mermista cradling Sea Hawk in her arms. In the end, it was only Bow and her, and of course they were the only two people that stayed to clean up the whole mess by themselves. It didn’t bother Adora, though, she figured the others were simply so tired they didn’t even realize they could have stayed and help. 

Adora was picking up the dozens of cushions form the floor and piling them up in a corner when she heard Bow’s voice from behind:

“So… I guess everything is okay between you and Catra?” 

She hadn’t told Glimmer and him about it yet, but she imagined they both figured out that things were alright between them after that night. Regardless, Adora explained her friend the whole conversation she had had with Catra earlier. 

“That’s a relief to hear, now you can finally let all this drama behind and be happy together like you deserve it,” Bow told her as he picked up the empty bowls where the popcorn had been. 

Adora stopped at his words, thinking about them. Like they deserved it… Something sounded terribly wrong about it. “Do, um, do you really think that I deserve it? After everything I’ve done? I know what Catra said but it’s just that…” 

Bow dropped the bowls on the floor and approached Adora, placing his hands on her shoulders and staring directly into her eyes. “Adora, of course you deserve it! You’ve been suffering about this since the day I met you, and now Catra tells you face to face that she forgives you and is happy with you. After everything you’ve both been through, you deserve to be happy with each other more than anything. You know you won’t hurt her again, Catra knows it, I know it. Adora, seriously, you need to stop doubting yourself and realize how kind and amazing you are, and that you deserve all the happiness in the world despite the mistakes you’ve made.” 

Adora was silent for a moment, digesting his words. She got closer to him and pulled him into a tight hug, letting Bow’s warmth and love heal her. 

“I feel so stupid that I can’t let this go! You’re probably so tired about me at this point,” Adora told him without letting him go. 

“Adora, I could never get tired of you, seriously, you’re my best friend and I’ll be by your side whenever you need me. You’ve been hurting for so long it’s just difficult for you to finally accept that you can be happy. But you’ll get there, I know you will, and I will be there beside you to remind you of that whenever you’re in doubt.”

Adora smiled at him, on the verge of tears, thinking about how Bow was literally the kindest and most intelligent person she knew and about how grateful she was to have him in her life. “Thanks, Bow, I know you will,” they kept on hugging for a while, until Adora finally felt better and let him go. They finished cleaning the room and wished good night to each other, and Adora made her way back to her cabin. As she was heading there, however, she received a picture from Bow: it was her, along with Glimmer and Cartra sleeping, apparently before he had woken them up. They looked so peaceful and comfortable. 

_\--I’m sorry but y’all looked so cute I couldn’t contain myself_

Adora couldn’t help but smile at the photo, it was pretty cute, she had to admit it. She even thought about uploading it to Instagram even if she knew her friends wouldn’t be so happy about it.

Catra woke up as she heard her enter, “finally, I was wondering when you were going to show up,” she whispered in the dark. She was laying on the lower bed under the blankets, and the moonlight that came from the gap between the window and its curtain barely illuminated her face, but Adora could see that she was smiling at her. 

Adora’s heart melted upon seeing her there, waiting for her eagerly and being so happy with her arrival. She felt her stomach twirling as she put on her pajamas and explained to her that she had stayed cleaning up with Bow, and she felt her body weak as she went in to snuggle with Catra and wrapped her arms around her, feeling her soft skin against hers. Most importantly, she felt _happy_ as Catra’s perfume invaded her, and as she kissed her goodnight, and she felt that maybe Bow was right, maybe she did deserve this after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An alternative title for this chapter would be: Bow is the best friend ever and I love him
> 
> Thanks everyone for more than 2k hits!! I really appreciate anyone who's been reading, commenting, giving kudos, etc. Unfortunately, I have to announce that this fic is almost reaching its end. I'll probably write two or three more chapters, maybe four if I'm really inspired. So I hope y'all enjoy the last bits of it!


	13. The stars

Adora wouldn’t have described the past few days as anything else than perfect. Her relationship with Catra was better than ever. Since her talk with Bow a couple of days ago, she had felt more confident about the matter, it had really helped her to try to put her intrusive thoughts aside and enjoy Catra’s company without feeling guilty about it. They slept together every night, and Adora felt comfortable by her side. She had this sense of belonging when she was near her. Getting Catra back on her life had made her wonder how she had survived all those years without her, and not as in a romantic way, but because of this strong connection she felt with her. She felt Catra understood her in a way beyond anyone else ever could. Catra would read her thoughts with just glancing at her, it was almost scary. And Adora would do the same for her. The fact that they had shared their childhood together meant that they truly comprehended the troubles of one another. Whenever Adora told Glimmer and Bow, for example, about her days at the orphanage, they would, of course, feel sorry for her and try to console her, but they could never truly understand how she felt. They had both grown up in very loving and caring families, so they couldn’t even begin to imagine how it actually was.

They would laugh for hours about the stupidest things, and talk about everything they had lived during those years they were apart, learning to trust each other again. It didn’t actually seem as if they were getting to know each other from scratch, though. In many of Catra’s quirks and and expressions, Adora still recognized that goofy girl she had grown up with, only that more mature and… sadder, in a certain way. It was inevitable, she thought, they hadn’t had the easiest lives.

It was their turn to take care of the eldest teens by then, and Catra didn’t like it at all. Adora had already had the experience when she had covered for Perfuma, so she had been emotionally prepared. But this group wasn’t better than the other one. They were enthusiastic about the activities, at least, but they were almost always trying to look for an opportunity to go hook up with one another in secret. And it was tedious. Adora thought about her teenage years and didn’t recall being that horny, but then again, at the time she was still dating boys because she hadn’t figured out she was a lesbian, so maybe it was that. 

Adora was getting ready to go to bed, but she noticed Catra was a little bit more energetic than usual. She was telling Adora about this rock musician she had discovered recently and as she did so, she wouldn’t stop walking and jumping around the room, and touching Adora’s hair and waist whenever she got close to her. Not that Adora minded the attention, but Catra wasn’t usually this enthusiastic at that time of the day.

“Catra, did you have any coffee or something?” she asked her, raising an eyebrow.

“I did, actually, I know I shouldn’t have but I had a craving and Spinnerella offered me some and it smelled so good, I couldn’t resist!” she answered, her eyes wide.

Adora snorted, “you’re not going to stop bothering me the whole night, aren’t you?”

Catra quickly shook her head, a mischievous smile on her face. 

Adora paused for a second, taking a hand to her chin. She then picked up the nearest hoodie she found and put it on.

“Alright, let’s go,” she told Catra, who was now staring at her in confusion.

“Go where? It’s the middle of the night.”

“I know,” Adora told her handing her another hoodie of her own, “let’s go watch the stars, that always helps me calm down when I can’t sleep.”

Catra giggled, “are you serious?” she said, although she did grab the hoodie and put it on, looking comfy. 

“Of course I am.”

“Alright, but I’m not going to be the one to wake you up tomorrow when you complain about not having had enough sleep,” Catra smirked at her as she headed towards the door. Adora simply rolled her eyes and followed her.

Holding each other’s hand, they strolled around the place for a while until they found a spot the liked near the lake. The night was chilly, but in a pleasant and refreshing way. They laid next to each other, never letting go of the other’s hand, and Adora had to make the biggest effort to keep her eyes fixed on the sky instead of Catra. It was probably the fact that every passing day she found herself falling deeper and deeper for the woman by her side, but Adora would have sworn that Catra somehow became even more and more beautiful every time she stared at her. Maybe it was also the fact that Catra seemed happier by then, she smiled a lot more than when they had reunited, and her gaze had turned into a soft and loving one.

Needless to say that the sky was impressive as it always was over camp, with more stars than Adora recalled seeing in any other place in her life. They were quiet at first, simply taking in the view and enjoying each other’s company.

“Catra, can I ask you something?” Adora broke the silence after a while. There was a doubt going around her mind that wouldn’t let her sleep, and she thought this was the best moment to let it out.

“You’re going to ask it anyways so why do you ask for my permission?” Catra joked.

“I don’t know, to be polite, maybe?”

Catra snorted, “go ahead then.”

“Did you have a crush on me when we were younger?”

Catra burst into laughter, and turned her face to stare at her, “are you joking?”

Their eyes met and Adora couldn’t contain a smile from hearing the other girl’s giggles, she thought it had to be one the most pleasant sounds in the whole world.

“I’m serious Catra.”

“Of course I had! I thought you had already figured that out by now,” even though Catra had stopped laughing, there was still a smile beaming on her face, and Adora had to contain herself from pulling her closer and kissing every cute, little freckle on her face.

“Well, I mean, I had my suspicions but I was never really sure about it.”

“God, you’re even dumber than I thought,” Catra teased her.

“Hey!” Adora said, although she hadn’t really been offended by the comment.

“When I saw you again, Adora, do you know what was the first thing that came into my mind once the anger was gone? That I hoped you had finally accepted you’re a lesbian because it was illegal for someone as hot as yourself not to be gay.”

Adora chuckled, feeling flattered, “how did you know that I was a lesbian?”

Catra raised an eyebrow at her, as if not believing the question, “because, Adora, whenever there was a basket match at school you would spend the whole time staring at the cheerleaders instead of paying attention to the actual game, and you loved basket!”

Adora laughed as Catra continued narrating all the gay attitudes Adora had as a teenager, realizing for the first time of how oblivious she had actually been.

“God, and don’t even let me start with that boyfriend you had for a while!” Catra finally said, between giggles.

“Please don’t,” Adora begged, but it was useless, Catra had already started ranting about it and she knew there was no stop for it. 

“I swear Adora, I never saw you, not even once, being comfortable around him. I can’t even understand what you saw in him on the first place. Like even I, as a fellow lesbian, can distinguish between men that are worth it and men that aren’t, and he sure as Hell wasn’t,” Catra’s voice was full of emotion as she spoke, clearly being a topic that brought her a lot of memories.

Adora slapped her face at her words, invaded by shame and embarrassment as she remembered him, “I know, I was an idiot,” she muffled. 

“God, you have no idea of how jealous I was of him!” Catra’s words came almost in a scream, “seriously whenever he grabbed you by the waist and I saw that almost disgusted look in your eyes I felt this huge urge to punch him, I swear” she wasn’t even staring at Adora then, more like ranting into the sky as she got herself lost in the memories themselves. 

“Alright, that’s enough speaking about Chad, it’s not something that I like to remember,” Adora interrupted her.

“Fuck, me neither,” she agreed, and soon they were both silent once more. They turned their gazes back into the sky, but Adora would occasionally glance at Catra and saw that she wasn’t smiling anymore. In fact, her eyes looked troubled and distant, and she was unconsciously frowning a little.

“Hey, is everything alright?” Adora asked her, getting closer to her and laying her head on Catra’s stomach. She was quick to grab her hair and tenderly start combing it with her fingers, clearly happy that she wasn’t wearing her ponytail for once.

“Yeah… I was just thinking about…” she paused. Catra’s tone was way softer, and Adora almost perceived a taint of irritation in the way she spoke, “what’s going to happen to us when this is all over.”

“What do you mean when this is all over? The summer season?”

Catra nodded, evading her gaze, “I mean, you’re going back to college, you’re going to be surrounded by hot girls all the time, and you’re going to be worried about your exams and… I’ll still be here, one hundred and fifty miles away from you,” she had a half-smile on her face, but not the kind of smile that showed happiness, the kind of smile that meant she was feeling hopeless but didn’t want Adora to feel sorry for her.

Adora sat down so that she could be face to face with Catra. She put her hand on her cheek and stroke it softly, staring directly into her eyes, “hey, I told you I don’t want to ever let you down again and I mean it,” she tried to console her. “We’ll make up the time to see each other, it’s barely more than two hours by bus. We both have jobs, we can afford it, and we can take turns to travel… We can make it work,” she smiled at her, although Catra didn’t seem that optimistic. 

Her friend bit her lip and after taking a deep sigh she responded, “I know… it’s just that… Jeez, I know you’re your own independent person, and we aren’t… I don’t know- but just imagining you with other girls makes me feel reaaally weird. I mean, I don’t want to force you to be tied up to me or anything, but I just want to be clear on where our relationship will stand because… I can’t tolerate the thought of you living the good life back at college and then coming back to me and act all affectionate like we’re doing now and then go back to living the good life…” she stopped, finally meeting Adora’s eyes and noticing the confused look on her face. 

“Fuck, I’m not making any sense, aren’t I?” Catra took her hands to her eyes and massaged them, frustrated. 

Adora pouted at her, and in almost ironic tone she said, “are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”

At the question, Catra quickly lifted her back of the ground and sat down as well. Adora noticed her cheeks were bright red, even in the dark of the night. Her eyes were wide in surprise, “No!” she screeched, “I mean, I don’t know, don’t you think it’s a little bit too soon for that? I just… Wanted to make clear how I feel, about us.”

Adora smiled at her reaction, she looked adorable when she got flustered, “Catra, even if you hadn’t told me any of this, I wouldn’t have gone back to college and just… start seeing other girls. I don’t want to, I want to be with you.” She grabbed her hand in hers, gently fondling her fingers. 

Catra’s face illuminated at that, and Adora saw she was making an effort to contain a smile. 

“And what about sex?” she asked her. 

“What about it?” 

Catra rolled her eyes, “you know what I mean. Don’t you want it? Can you spend weeks without getting laid? Months maybe?” 

Adora snorted, “of course I can. I don’t know what kind of person you take me for, but between the exams, and work, and my friends, I barely have any time for that.”

“Well, will you have enough time for me, then?” Catra raised her eyebrow. 

“I told you, I’ll make time for you. These last days have been like, the best days of my life honestly. You make me so happy, Catra, I-“ 

She couldn’t finish her sentence as she was silenced by Catra’s lips crashing against hers. She didn’t complain though, pulling her friend closer and letting her body fall down into the ground again. Catra followed her movement, ending slightly on top of her. Adora ran her hand over her curls as she deepened the kiss. She lost herself under Catra’s perfume, the way she softly grabbed her cheek, the sweet flavor of her lips. Adora thought how her body would never get accustomed to the utter emotion of having Catra this close, as every time they shared those tender moments together, it would always make her feel as if she was literally high. She didn’t know how long they stayed like that, kissing as if it was the first time in years, learning what tiny gestures the other one enjoyed. Adora realized how Catra would almost gasp whenever she touched the lower part of her waist. It was obviously a sensitive spot for her and Adora made sure to caress it whenever her hands were near that zone. Similarly, Catra was quickly to find out that neck kisses drove Adora crazy, and she would seize any opportunity when Adora shifted her head to deliver tiny pecks there. It tingled Adora, but in a pleasant way that she loved.

It took them a while to separate, and when they finally did it was because Catra thought she had heard someone coming. Fortunately, it was just a confusion as Adora didn’t want to have another Mermista episode. They went back to their original purpose, to gaze at the stars, as they recovered their breaths and calmed themselves down. Adora thought than even as beautiful as the starry night was, it was nothing compared to the girl that was laying next to her, and she couldn’t resist but to shift her head to glance at Catra. She found out Catra was doing the same thing, and as their eyes met, Adora felt as if a wave of electricity ran through her whole body. 

“God, you’re so beautiful, Catra. Seriously you have no idea of how crazy I am for you right now,” Adora confessed as she stared into her mismatched eyes. 

Catra laughed at the comment, but not as in a mockery but actually amused by it, “when did you become so sappy, Adora?” 

“I don’t know, but this is your doing.” 

Catra got closer and gave her a tiny peck on the nose. After what felt like at least an hour, they decided it was time to get back to their cabin before dawn would surprise them again. They walked slowly, holding hands, Adora silently wishing they could have stayed living that moment forever. When they reached the cabin, the place Adora had almost started to consider her home by the time, they went to bed together as usual. Adora asked Catra if she felt at least a little bit sleepy as she wrapped her arms around her, but there was no response from her. Adora opened her eyes to take a look at the girl next to her, but she found she was already peacefully sleeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no other explanation for this chapter besides that I want them to be happy together
> 
> I hope y'all enjoy the fluff? Idk if you prefer the angsty scenes better but as the fic is coming to an end everything is just going to be fluff from now on. There are like, one or more two chapters on the way though so...


	14. The bracelet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for (non-explicit) sexual content on this chapter.

Adora noticed how Catra was getting more and more clingy and cuddly with each passing day. Not that she was against it, but she couldn’t help but have a bittersweet feeling about it, as she sensed Catra was internally facing the same problem as her: knowing that they were running out of time. They tried to avoid the subject for the most part, but they didn’t need to talk about it to know that it was eating them both alive. Every night, they would hold each other tighter, kiss more passionately, stay awake for later just so that they could enjoy each other’s company for a little longer longer, knowing soon they wouldn’t be able to enjoy it at all. Adora was certain that they would make the long-distance issue work, but that didn’t mean the mere idea of staying weeks away from Catra didn’t break her heart. They had been separated for so long, it seemed almost unfair that they had to go their own ways again after finally being reunited and at ease with each other. Just imagining waking up all alone in her apartment, without Catra by her side, without her smell on the sheets or her awfully cute yawns in the morning, made Adora feel a huge sense of emptiness inside. She had grown accustomed to Catra’s presence, to having her close bothering her, mocking her, playing with her hair, tingling her, kissing her. Adora thought about the beginning of summer, of how oblivious she had been about the enormous roller coaster she was about to ride, and she smiled. Even if she knew it was going to hurt like Hell to let go of Catra again, she wouldn’t have changed a thing. 

She had been thinking about a way to say goodbye to Catra, maybe there was something she could give her or do for her to remind Catra that she would still be there when they started to miss each other. There wasn’t much she could do at camp, though, especially as she spent most of her time with Catra. But Bow gave her an idea she didn’t actually hate. It was kind of silly, but she didn’t have any better plan and she hoped Catra would still appreciate it. 

They were walking around the lake at evening waiting for dinner time, when Adora decided it was the perfect time to give it to her. She had been carrying it on her pocket, waiting for them to be alone. 

“What’s this?” Catra asked staring at the bracelet Adora was handing her. 

Adora blushed, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed about it, “it’s just… I made you a bracelet, so that you could, you know, wear it to remind you that I’ll be always there for you whenever you need me.” 

Catra had a faint smile on her face, “oh, Adora, that’s so corny,” she said as she stared at it. It was made with red waxed thread, using the technique Scorpia had taught her. It was simple, but Adora had put a lot of effort into it and was really proud of how nice it had actually turned out. 

Adora’s expression shifted into worrisome at Catra’s reaction, “you don’t like it?” she asked her. 

“What?” Catra turned up her head to stare at the other girl, and as their eyes met Catra gave her a warm smile, probably realizing her words might have sounded as if she was ungrateful for the gift. “No, I love it,” she softly said as she approached Adora and asked her help to tie it up. “This is probably the nicest thing you’ve done for me so far.” 

“Oh, come on, I can think of better things,” Adora joked, giving the bracelet the finishing knot. 

“Me too,” Catra told her in her most seductive tone possible as she fixed her eyes on hers, a mischievous spark on them. 

“What do you mean?” Adora asked, trying to figure out where the attitude was coming from. 

“Well, I’ve been thinking…” Catra raised her eyebrow, “and I think I want to do it.” 

Adora stared at her in confusion, “do what?” 

The other girl groaned and rolled her eyes, “you know, do it, _do it._ ” 

“Oh!” Adora exclaimed, finally realizing what she meant. “Are you sure?” 

“Of course I am, we only have one week left after all.” 

“Yeah… That’s what worries me. Are you sure you want to do this or are you just worried that…? I don’t know, if we don’t do it then I’ll go back to college and find another girl to let out all my sexual frustration?” 

“What?! No!” Catra frowned, “it isn’t like that at all,” she sighed. “Listen, when I’m around you I just feel… I don’t know, I feel hot, you know what I mean?” 

“You feel _hot?_ ” Adora mocked her, crossing her arms. 

“Come on Adora! I’m trying to explain myself here. Like, when we’re sleeping together, I really, really want to touch you. I just feel like my body is being set on fire. Jeez, is this was being horny feels like?” Catra had an almost frustrated look on her face that Adora found adorable. She giggled. 

“Yeah, pretty much.” 

“Well, it sucks,” Catra answered, “I barely have control over how my body feels anymore, and it’s all your fault!” 

Adora got closer to her, their faces centimeters apart, “well I can’t help being so irresistible, can I?” she teased her, trying to sound as charming as Catra did. She didn’t answer the question, but grabbed Adora by the collar of her shirt and pulled her closer into a deep kiss. Adora quickly noticed that Catra wasn’t joking when she said she was ready to do it, as her movements were fierce and demanding, craving for more. She grabbed Adora by the waist, making their bodies clash with each other, and slowly and tenderly started to lower her hand towards Adora’s butt. 

“A little bit eager, aren’t we?” Adora smirked at her, although she was thrilled to discover this new side of Catra. 

“Shut up,” she answered and went to deliver a series of tiny smooches on Adora’s neck. She felt a tingly sensation after each of them that sent shivers down her body. 

“Catra, what if someone sees us?” she whispered, although she was so hypnotized by Catra’s kisses and touches she didn’t actually care. 

“Let them see, we probably look hot together,” she answered as she continued to run her hands through Adora’s body, growing more impatient every second. 

Adora snorted, “what if Angella or Micah see us?” she asked as she moved her head to one side to give Catra more space to kiss her neck and her collarbone. She didn’t answer, but simply obeyed Adora’s silent request and sank her face on her neck, no longer kissing it but giving tiny bites with her sharp teeth. That was the final straw for Adora, who stopped containing herself and grabbed Catra by the hips as well, very slowly running her hand around Catra’s butt, who smirked at her, clearly pleased with her reaction. 

They were interrupted by Adora’s phone ringing. She took it out to see Glimmer’s name popping on the screen, so she decided to hang up and call her later. She was getting her hands on Catra’s body again when she felt her phone vibrating on her pocket once more. Frustrated, she took it out. She knew Glimmer wouldn’t stop calling her until she answered. 

“What’s going on?” she asked her friend as she answered the call, trying not to sound as eager to hang up as she actually was. 

“You guys should get a room,” Glimmer’s voice sounded smug on the other side of the line. Adora turned her head in every direction searching for her friend, and she found her staring from the opposite side of the lake. Their eyes met and Glimmer waved at her with an ironic smile on her face. Adora saw Catra had shifted her head as well and was frowning at Glimmer. 

“How long have you been there?” Adora asked her. 

“Enough, but I don’t want to stay for the rest of the show, honestly. You should go to your cabin for the _grand finale_ though, I just saw my parents walking around near where you are.” 

“Alright, I’ll catch you later. Thanks.” 

“Wait! If you ever hang up on me again for making out with a girl, I’ll kill you. What if I was in trouble? Are you really going to leave your best friend to her own because you’re horny?” 

Adora rolled her eyes, “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.” 

“It better,” and that being said, Glimmer ended the phone call. 

“Was that creep staring at us?” Catra turned to face Adora again. 

“She just told me she saw her parents were walking around near here so that we should be careful.” 

Catra let out a sigh and crossed her arms, “whatever.” 

“It’s almost dinner time anyways, we should be heading,” Adora laced her fingers with Catra’s and got closer to her so that she could whisper into her ear, “we can continue this later.” 

The other girl smirked at her, staring into her eyes with a certain curiosity, “damn Adora, who would have thought you were such a sweet talker.” 

Adora snorted as she gave her a peck on the lips, and as they headed to dinner she wouldn’t stop fantasizing about the aftermath. She hadn’t had any real trouble respecting Catra’s wishes of them not to have sex before. In fact, she had already reached the conclusion that they were probably not even going to do it, so she didn’t get her hopes up about it. At times she would find herself craving for it, especially when they were cuddling in bed at night, or when Catra would ask her to scratch her back or when they got a little carried away with the make out sessions. But she had learnt to control it and to put her desires aside, as she didn’t want to make Catra feel pressured or uncomfortable around her. But now that her friend seemed so eager about it, it was completely different. It wasn’t just a brief fantasy she would quickly set aside, but a burning desire it wouldn’t let her head think straight or her body breath properly. 

And Catra wasn’t helpful at all. Adora already had enough with her own mind impatiently counting down the minutes for dinner time to end, she didn’t need Catra to be constantly tormenting her and making her feel even more eager than she already was. She would caress her leg with her own under the table, or casually put her hand on Adora’s thigh when nobody was watching. It took all of Adora’s willpower to concentrate on keeping a straight face during the meal as she thought of erasing Catra’s smug expression with a kiss. Adora knew Catra, she knew that when she wanted something, she was really determined about it, so Catra being a huge tease wasn’t a surprise for her. She remembered teenage Catra, after all, the way she would fearlessly flirt with the girls she liked. Adora simply didn’t expect that one day she would be one of those girls. 

By the time they reached the cabin, Adora’s only thought was Catra. She was aching to touch every inch of her body, to kiss all of her sensitive spots, to make her feel as good as she deserved. She had barely closed the door behind her when Catra literally jumped into her, hungrily looking for their lips to meet. Adora was happy to oblige, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her closer, as their mouths clashed with each other in a deep kiss. As Catra was shorter than her, Adora felt her hands strongly pressuring on the back of her neck to try to maintain herself steady as she kissed her. But Adora thought of a better solution for that. She picked up the other girl by the thighs and lifted her up, Catra quickly lacing her legs around Adora’s waist. She was a very small girl, so Adora, who hit the gym almost every day back at college, barely had to make any effort to lift her. And Catra seemed thrilled about it, gasping and kissing her even more fiercely than before as she sank her nails on Adora’s back. 

Adora slowly carried her to the bed, where she put her down as careful as possible making sure not to hurt her. They broke the kiss as Adora placed herself on top of her, and their eyes met. Catra’s gaze looked confident, full of desire. They stared at each other for a moment, as if both were waiting for the other one to make the first move. Adora took her hand to Catra’s stomach, and very softly slid her hand underneath. Catra gasped at the touch, never breaking eye contact with her. 

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Adora asked her, just to make sure. 

“Adora, I think I’ve never wanted anything else more than this in my whole life,” she said with a comforting smile. 

Adora giggled, “okay, just let me know if I do anything you don’t like, okay?” 

Catra nodded and went in for a kiss, not as desperate as before. It struck Adora more as an invitation kiss, to tell her that she trusted her and that she was willing to share her body with her. They undressed one another stopping to stare and kiss at almost every second, Adora taking her time to admire every little part of Catra’s beautiful body. And she let herself get lost in everything about Catra, treasuring every single moment they spent together that night. 

“Jesus Christ! That was awesome!” Catra’s eyes sparkled in excitement as she got back her breath. “Can we do it again? I want to be the one on top this time.” 

Adora simply stared at her and snorted as she softly stroked her cheek. They were facing each other in bed, sweaty and euphoric after they’d finished. “We can do it as many times as you want, it’s still early.” 

Catra smiled at her, “See? This is why I love you.” 

Adora grew stiff at the comment. She didn’t know why, it wasn’t as if she didn’t feel the same way, but it had been so unexpected. Catra had never told her that she loved her, not even when they were younger, and Adora knew it wasn’t because she hadn’t actually loved her, but because she had always been too afraid to admit it. So, hearing her actually say it, knowing how difficult it was for her to express love, how vulnerable it made her feel, was a shock for her. 

Catra noticed that Adora was startled by her words, but it didn’t make her back down, on the contrary, “I’ve been in love with you my whole life, Adora. These past years I might have been able to get over you, but it literally took you less than two weeks to make me fall for you again. Whenever I’m near you, I feel like my head is about to explode. I love everything about you, I love how kind you’re to everyone, and how you always put your best effort in everything you do, and how competitive you get over everything. Jeez, I even love that stupid, puffy thing you do with your hair. Like, in any other girl, it would be ridiculous, but whenever I see you my legs grow weak because of how adorable you look. And all of this… just feels so surreal to me. I still can’t believe all of this is actually happening. Do you have any idea of how many times I dreamed about kissing you? About telling you how I feel? And now I can do that, and I’m tired of avoiding it, of eating up my feelings. I just… Love you, I really do. I’ve always had, and I want you to know that.” 

Adora didn’t have any words to reply, her mind was still trying to digest everything Catra had just told her. She simply kept on staring into her eyes, feeling her whole body growing warmer with utter love for the girl that was in front of her. She got closer to her, and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. As she put Catra’s curls that were over her face besides her ears, Adora was finally able to find her voice again. 

“You’re literally the most amazing person I know. Seriously, these past days I’ve been wondering over and over again how I was able to move on with my life without you, because I’ve missed you everyday, I’ve thought about you everyday. Because of course I loved you, maybe not in a romantic way like you did. Or maybe I did, I’m not so sure anymore, I was very confused about it as a teenager… Anyways, the point is, I love you, I’m madly in love with you. And whatever happens from now on, I’ll always be by your side.” 

They were both beaming, gazing lovingly into each other in a comfortable silence, and Adora thought that she could spend literally days like that, simply admiring Catra, simply enjoying her company. For Catra, however, it didn’t seem to be enough. 

“What about round two? I really wanted to do it again” she finally said, putting on her puppy eyes. 

Adora giggled, “God, you’re going to be demanding about it now that we’ve done it, aren’t you?” 

“I mean, how can I not when you’re literally the most stunning woman alive and I have you laying naked next to me?” Catra said, only half joking. 

“And you say I’m the sweet talker,” Adora mocked her. 

But Catra’s reply was to climb on top of her and start kissing her neck once more. They didn’t sleep that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is final chapter :( 
> 
> I may take a while to update mostly because I started online classes, but I'll do my best to try to write it in less than two weeks. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this! Please let me know what you think in the comments because I'm kinda scared of your reaction on this one lol


	15. The farewell

Adora had known this day would eventually arrive, she simply hadn’t been prepared for how much it would actually hurt. Catra and her were finishing to pack their clothes before dinner time, as their respective buses would arrive early in the morning. They barely spoke as they did, both staring at the luggage with heartbroken eyes. Once they had finished, Adora proposed to go for a final walk around camp, as they wouldn’t have time to do it later because of the farewell party they were having. There were still some liquor bottles that needed to be emptied.

Holding each other’s hands tightly, they started to wander around camp, stopping every now and then at some spots to remember a moment they had shared together there. Adora realized how much she was going to miss the camp. Of course she was going to miss Catra, but she was certain they were going to see each other again. However, it would have to be at least almost a whole year till she could go back to that beautiful place. The sun was setting, painting the sky a mixture of orange and pink. Adora took a deep breath of fresh air she couldn’t enjoy back at college, she stared at the trees and the lake, listened to the silence, and she felt a sense of emptiness growing inside of her as she did. Leaving last year had been hard, but this year was going to be even worse. Because she loved that place, every corner of it, she felt at peace with herself there, she had nothing but good memories of it. She realized it had grown as a somewhat comfort place for her over time, and she also had this, almost stupid, idea that the camp had somehow brought Catra back to her life on purpose, as if it was magical.

Angella and Micah thanked everyone for the successful summer season during dinner time, and made a special toast for Spinnerella and Netossa’s hard work. It was a very festive meal, Angella let them play music and drink a little to celebrate the end of the season, and she even joined them for a dance after she had had a glass of wine. After supper, they all went together to lit a bonfire to continue the celebration. They were already a little bit tipsy, but with the two remaining alcohol bottles, one of rum and one of vodka, they were all soon talking gibberish and seeing doubles. They sang their hearts out under the night sky, appreciating what they all probably knew, was going to be their last moment all together, since there was no way to know for sure they would all be back at camp the following year. Or if they were going to be able to coordinate a meeting after summer. They didn’t live near each other, and they all had their respective responsibilities to attend. 

Adora wasn’t sure of how long it had been, she felt dizzy and numb under the effects of alcohol, but at some point, Bow, who wasn’t in a much better state than her, proposed they should all speak about the other counselors, saying something they appreciated from each one of them. They were all so drunk that they cheered at the idea, and Bow was the one to start. He took his time, speaking about everything he loved about each of them in detail. He spoke at least ten minutes straight about Glimmer, and when he had finished Adora would have sworn Glimmer was crying tears of emotion, although she didn’t fully trust her senses. 

When it was Scorpia’s turn, she started with Catra. She spoke about how much she appreciated her, and that she couldn’t have asked for a better roommate on Earth. Most importantly, she said she was relieved that she had found someone who made her feel as happy as she deserved, of course referring to Adora. She spoke highly of every one of them, and requested a hug she warmly received once her speeches were over. Finally, she reached her work partner, who, by the look on her face, had been longingly awaiting for her turn to be showered in compliments: 

“Perfuma,” Scorpia started, her eyes softly sparkling as she stared into her eyes, “when Angella and Micah told me you were going to be my partner for more than two months, I was thrilled, because you seemed so sweet and kind, and you smelled so good and also you loved my hugs! But I never expected for us to connect this much. I loved every moment of us working together, I think we make a great team, don’t you? I can’t be thankful enough of having gotten the chance to meet you. You’re just… amazing, in every possible sense. I’m going to miss you like crazy even though, well, we’re going to see each other again, but I’m going to miss my everyday life with you. I don’t know, I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re incredible, and beautiful, and funny, and I care about you and I… I like you, Perfuma,” everyone gasped and turned to look at Perfuma, who was cleaning a couple of tears of joy out from her face. She stood up and ran into Scorpia’s arms, who were wide open and waiting for her.

“Oh, Scorpia!” she said as the other girl lifted her off the ground in an embrace, “I feel the same way about you!” and without any hesitation she went in for a kiss, which Scorpia was happy to receive. If they all hadn’t been drunk off their asses, the moment could have been almost uncomfortable, but instead they all loudly cheered and clapped and whistled at them in excitement. 

After the romantic scene between the girls, it was Catra’s turn to speak. She was reluctant at first, claiming she barely knew half of the other counselors, but after they all insisted and begged for her not to be a party pooper she had no choice but to stand up and start talking. She wasn’t very expressive, though, she told Glimmer she had a great taste in movies, and Sea Hawke that he had a cool guitar… She seemed too shy to speak outwardly about Adora, so she simply told her she was the hottest girl she knew and also the love of her life, and those words were more than enough to make Adora blush and smile like a baby. Finally, she told Perfuma that she liked the way she smelled, and that if she ever hurt Scorpia, she would regret it with her life. Adora knew she wasn’t joking. 

Adora barely remembered half of the stuff she said. She knew she spoke for a while about each of them, letting her tongue run wild like she always did when she was very drunk. Bow actually recorded her for a while and showed it to her the following day, but she was so embarrassed about it she couldn’t even finish watching the video. 

They went on like that for hours, sharing their positiveness, and before they knew it, the sky was already turning lighter and the stars had disappeared. The sun was coming out in the distance, and, having all finished with their speeches, they simply stared at the sunrise in a comfortable silence. Adora took a look at the other counselors, her friends, and couldn’t contain a smile. She was going to miss moments like these ones terribly. Catra apparently noticed she was already feeling nostalgic and grabbed her hand in hers, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Adora gave her a faint smile and got closer to her to give her a forehead kiss, as a way of silently thanking her for her concern.

Finally feeling back to her senses, she took out her phone and looked at the time. Her bus would arrive in an hour. She sighed and stood up reluctantly, telling Bow and Glimmer that they should be getting ready to part. Her friends stood up as well, but before they could leave Scorpia stopped them.

“Wait! We need a group hug first!”

They exchanged a look and smiled, getting closer to the girl. The others stood up as well and they all came together in a huge, warm, embrace. Even Catra seemed to be enjoying it.

“This summer has been the best summer of my entire life thanks to you guys!” Perfuma muffled.

“Yeah, you’re all like, super cool,” Mermista added.

They stayed like that for a while, Adora enjoying the last minutes surrounded by the people she loved in a place that made her feel happy. Once hug time was over, she went back to her cabin with Catra, knowing the worst part was yet to come. She slowly went to pick up her luggage, starting to feel the exhaustion from not having slept a bit. Catra simply stared at her with a somber expression. They had already discussed when they were going to see each other again, of course. Catra would come to visit her at campus in two weeks, and they would rent a small apartment to spend the weekend together. But that didn’t make the farewell any less painful. After being together every day of their lives for more than two months in a row, being separated for even one simple day felt like a lot. 

Adora stood in front of her, their eyes meeting. There wasn’t really anything that any of them could say, they already knew that they were going to miss each other. Saying it aloud would only make things harder. So they simply hugged with all their strength, breathing heavily, clutching into the other as if they weren’t going to actually to meet again ever. Because it wasn’t just a hug of ‘I’m going to miss you’. It was more than that, as if they were trying to express how grateful they were about everything that had happened that summer, how crazy it had all been, but how much they had enjoyed it, and that they wouldn’t change a thing. It was the hug of having missed each other for years, and they knew that if they had been able to handle that, they would be able to handle anything.

Catra broke the hug but only to go for a kiss this time, holding Adora tightly against her.

“I love you,” Catra whispered to her between kisses.

“I love you too,” Adora replied. They gave each other a warm smile before getting out of the cabin. Adora glanced at the place one last time, silently saying goodbye to it.

The bus was already there when she arrived to the camp’s entrance, and the rest of the crew were saying their farewells to Glimmer and Bow. Angella was embracing Glimmer a little bit too tightly, and Adora knew she was trying to contain the tears so as not to look weak in front of her employees. Adora joined her friends and gave everyone a final hug. Everyone except Catra, she gave her one final kiss as well. She wanted to make sure she would remember how her lips felt against hers for when she found herself missing her back home. She would clutch to that memory to remind herself they would meet again soon and she would be able to experience it again. 

“Text me when you arrive home,” Catra told her, lovingly stroking her cheek. 

Adora nodded and gave her a tiny peck on the lips before turning to face the bus door. Very slowly, trying to grasp the last seconds with her friends, she got into the bus behind Glimmer and Bow. They went to sit at the back, as usual, because in that way they could sit all together. She shot a final glance to the others through the window as the vehicle started to move. Sea Hawk and Scorpia waved at them with tears in their eyes. Adora thought it was a little bit dramatic considering they were probably going to see each other again in less than a month. But she had to admit, she did feel a tiny knot on her throat as she saw them disappearing in the distance. Not only because she was going to miss them, but because she realized the best summer of her life was coming to an end.

She sighed, leaning her head on the window. She was exhausted, not only because she hadn’t slept in more than twenty-four hours, but she was also emotionally drained. It was only at that moment, when she found herself alone with her thoughts, that she started to digest everything that had happened in such little time. How her life had completely changed from one moment to another. 

“So, what a summer, huh?” Glimmer snapped her out of her thoughts. She was sitting right next to her although Adora seemed to just notice it. 

Adora smiled, thinking it had been a quite a summer indeed. “Yeah, thanks for… well, everything. I wouldn’t have survived this without you guys.” 

“Don’t even mention it,” Bow smiled at her. 

“And hey, now I’ve got someone who’s willing to watch horror movies with me, right? So you aren’t the only one who’s going to enjoy Catra’s visits,” Glimmer joked. 

Adora snorted. She had already told them that Catra would come stay at campus for a weekend, and Bow had already planned a night out for the four of them. She was really hoping that Catra would be willing to bond with them, but Adora knew she would try, for her.

Glimmer must have noticed Adora was feeling a little bit down, as she put her hand over hers, “we’ll be back next year. For now, we should be thankful for all the great moments we got to spend this season,” she reassured her. 

Adora gave her a faint smile, “I know, I wouldn’t change anything about it,” she said as she squeezed her friend’s hand. 

“Me neithe-,” Bow said, although he couldn’t finish the sentence as he was interrupted with a yawn, making his friends yawn as well. They didn’t have to say anything to know what was on their minds, they understood each other well enough by that point. Glimmer put her head on Bow’s shoulder and Adora put her head on Glimmer’s shoulder, without letting go of her hand. Adora’s last thoughts before falling peacefully asleep was Catra’s radiant smile, and how she couldn’t wait to see her cute, freckled face, and kiss her soft lips again, and again, and again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, so that's the end of it! Thank you so, so much to anyone who has reached this part, and a special thanks to everyone who has been leaving comments as I uploaded the chapters, you were literally my fuel to keep on writing this! 
> 
> Will I ever write more about this? Maybe, it really depends on how season 5 goes, honestly. 
> 
> Remember my tumblr is @magicgumball , I'm going to be posting lots of She-Ra when season 5 comes out, so if you want to come fangirl with me you're always welcomed!


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